ABSTRACT
The beginning of any assessment of contaminant risks from waste tailing requires the determination and evaluation of contaminants. In addition, the estimation of their mobility needs the specification of their relation to the present minerals in the studied environment. For this task, the concentration of a wide range of main and trace elements were determined by means of the X-ray fluorescence analysis. Further, due to their geochemical importance, the non-metals carbon, nitrogen and sulphur contents were defined. Moreover, the ignition loss was also determined. The recorded results show that independently of the weathering conditions of the studied areas, Na, Ca, S, Sr as well as Mg will exhibit a high mobility. Whereas, under the expected weathering conditions of the tailings environment, a very low mobility of Al, Ba, Bi, Ce, Cr, Fe, Ga, La, Pb, Mn, Nb, P, K, Rb, Si, Sn, Ti, W, Y and Zr is forecasted. Moreover, Co, Cu, Zn and Ni tend to be low mobile, but the presence of an oxidising agent may considerably enhance their mobility and the mobility of uranium.
