Evaluation of Plant Species for Phytoremediation of a Mining Waste from Andacollo, Neuquén-Argentina

Abstract

800x600 Mining waste disposal and treatment is one of the biggest environmental challenges that mining confront at present. A promising approach is the phytoremediation technology, where living plants are used to remove metals from impacted sites or to stabilize mine tailings. The aim of this work was to evaluate several plant species for phytoremediation of a mining waste from gold ores concentration plant in Andacollo, Neuquén-Argentina, to propose the execution of an environmental restoration plan in this area. For the forestation assays Pinus ponderosa, Pinus murrayana, Populus nigra species and a herbaceous plant, Festuca arundinacea, were selected. The tailings used in this study was physicochemically characterized and resulted to be non-potentially acid generating and presented very low organic matter and macronutrients contents. The sequential extraction showed that no metals were present in the water soluble fraction minimizing the risks of spreading heavy metals. Phytoremediation assay showed that all vegetable species could grow on the mine tailing. The dry vegetal biomass for F. arundinacea was only 28 % lower than the one obtained in the control soil. Pinus species and P. nigra presented high values of translocation factor only for Zn. These preliminary results suggest that the forestation of this tailing dam with Pinus species and F. arundinacea could be an adequate strategy to phytoremediate this particular area. Normal 0 21 false false false ES-AR X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}