Abstract

Placer gold-mining on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand provided a field test-bed for investigating the impacts of fine inorganic suspensoids (clays) on streams not subjected to other abuses. The suspensions of clays (40% between 0.55 and 1 pm in diameter) seeping into the streams from gold mines were colloidally stable. The clay particles attenuated light in the streamwater with near maximum efficiency leading to severe degradation of stream optical quality. Turbidity increased from a median of 2.4 NTU upstream often to >100 NTU (median 15 NTU) downstream

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