[1] Understanding the mechanical behavior of rock is critical for researchers and decision-makers in fields from petroleum recovery to hazardous waste disposal. Traditional continuum-based numerical models are hampered by inadequate constitutive relationships governing fracture initiation and growth. To overcome limits associated with continuum models we employed a discrete model based on the f...

Arsenic in dust and aerosol generated by mining, mineral processing and metallurgical extraction industries, is a serious threat to human populations throughout the world. Major sources of contamination include smelting operations, coal combustion, hard rock mining, as well as their associated waste products, including fly ash, mine wastes and tailings. The number of uncontained arsenic-rich mi...

Phenol is a product of combustion of coal wood and municipal solid waste; therefore, residents near coal and petroleum fueled facilities as well as residents near municipal waste incinerators may have increased exposure to phenol. Phenol is also a product of auto exhaust, and therefore, areas of high traffic likely contain increased levels of phenol. Recent data on concentrations of phenol in a...

Mercury (Hg) release from inoperative Hg mines in the California Coast Range has been documented, but little is known about the release and transport mechanisms. In this study, tailings from Hg mines located in different geologic settings--New Idria (NI), a Si-carbonate Hg deposit, and Sulphur Bank (SB), a hot-spring Hg deposit--were characterized, and particle release from these wastes was stu...

The paper presents some numerical tests for the temperature development around nuclear waste packages stored in vaults. We deal with two simplified models. In the first of them, a single long cylinder of the diameter 1 m is considered. It is filled with radioactive waste and surrounded by rock. The second model presents a long cuboidal package stored in a vault. The computation was carried out ...

introduction pyrite oxidation and acid mine drainage (amd) are the serious environmental problems associated with the mining activities in sulphide ores. the rate of pyrite oxidation is governed by the availability of oxygen (borden, 2003). therefore, the identifying oxygen supplying mechanism is one of the most important issues related to the environmental assessment of waste rock dumps (cathl...

In 2003, Red Chris Development Company started collecting baseline data to support its application for environmental approvals to mine the Red Chris porphyry copper-gold deposit located in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. An extensive geochemical testing program revealed that the majority of the waste rock has the potential to generate acid. However, the presence of significant quantities...