Open AccessXANES speciation of mercury in three mining districts – Almadén, Asturias (Spain), Idria (Slovenia)
Author(s) -
Esbrí José Maria,
Bernaus Anna,
Ávila Marta,
Kocman David,
GarcíaNoguero Eva M.,
Guerrero Beatriz,
Gaona Xavier,
Álvarez Rodrigo,
PerezGonzalez Gustavo,
Valiente Manuel,
Higueras Pablo,
Horvat Milena,
Loredo Jorge
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of synchrotron radiation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.172
H-Index - 99
ISSN - 1600-5775
DOI - 10.1107/s0909049510001925
Subject(s) - cinnabar , mercury (programming language) , xanes , environmental chemistry , sulfide , bioavailability , chemistry , mineralization (soil science) , atomic absorption spectroscopy , soil water , mineralogy , environmental science , spectroscopy , hematite , soil science , bioinformatics , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , computer science , biology , programming language
The mobility, bioavailability and toxicity of mercury in the environment strongly depend on the chemical species in which it is present in soil, sediments, water or air. In mining districts, differences in mobility and bioavailability of mercury mainly arise from the different type of mineralization and ore processing. In this work, synchrotron‐based X‐ray absorption near‐edge spectroscopy (XANES) has been taken advantage of to study the speciation of mercury in geological samples from three of the largest European mercury mining districts: Almadén (Spain), Idria (Slovenia) and Asturias (Spain). XANES has been complemented with a single extraction protocol for the determination of Hg mobility. Ore, calcines, dump material, soil, sediment and suspended particles from the three sites have been considered in the study. In the three sites, rather insoluble sulfide compounds (cinnabar and metacinnabar) were found to predominate. Minor amounts of more soluble mercury compounds (chlorides and sulfates) were also identified in some samples. Single extraction procedures have put forward a strong dependence of the mobility with the concentration of chlorides and sulfates. Differences in efficiency of roasting furnaces from the three sites have been found.