Removal of antimony and arsenic from circum-neutral mine drainage in Poproč, Slovakia: a field treatment system using low-cost iron-based material

The main aim of this paper was to investigate the removal efficiency of antimony (Sb) and arsenic (As) from circum-neutral mine drainage in the former Sb mine in Poproč (Slovakia) using a simple field treatment system based on the adsorption onto iron fillings. The treatment system consisted of two batch reactors with a volume of 1 m3: the first was used for settling of spontaneously precipitated ochreous sediments and the second, filled with reactive iron material, was designed to remove Sb and As from mine water. This passively operated treatment system contained 150 kg of low-cost iron fillings and was able to treat approximately 360 l of mine drainage per hour. The average removal efficiency of Sb and As reached 84 and 89% during a period of 2.3 years of the system operation, respectively. On average, dissolved Sb and As concentrations in mine drainage decreased from 175 to 24.3 µg/l and from 452 to 50.6 µg/l, respectively. Based on the electron microprobe (EMP) analyses of corrosion products developed on the surfaces of iron fillings, average Sb and As contents were 0.28 and 0.73 wt%, respectively. The chemical analyses of precipitated HFOs in the settling reactor showed that these ochreous precipitates contained up to 19.3 g/kg Sb and 65.8 g/kg As, indicating their natural role in the removal of the two metalloids from circum-neutral mine drainage. The results of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses confirmed the presence of ferrihydrite and goethite in ochreous sediments.