Geochemistry of tailings at malanjkhand copper mine, Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

This study aimed at mineralogically characterizing and finding the metal content of the tailings coming out from the mining of copper at Malanjkhand copper mine, located in north east of Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh which is the largest copper deposit in India producing nearly 2.2 million tonnes of copper tailings annually. The tailings were characterized geochemically by taking samples from the tailing pond. The mineralogy of the samples were studied and the concentrations of copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, manganese and nickel were measured. The tailings mostly consisted of quartz, kaolinite, muscovite, plagioclase, pyrite, chalcopyrite, orthoclase, goethite, chloride and jarosite. Copper, cadmium and lead were above their respective crustal abundance and the concentration of copper was found to be the maximum.