HYDROGEOCHEMICAL ANALOGS OF METAL-EXTRACTION GEOTECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

The geotechnology of metals is a method of extracting them that involves solution of the useful ore components on site, either at the surface or underground, with subsequent industrial processing of the enriched solution. Thus far, geotechnology has been more or less widely used to treat deposits of Cu, U, and Au, but it is an economical, ecologically clean, automatable technique for treating deposits of at least 20 other metals. We shall attempt below to evaluate its potential in term of hydrogeochemistry. In our initial analysis we may assume that the prospects for the use of geotechnology to extract a given element are directly dependent on its aqueous migration coefficient (AMC) in ground waters, which is an indication both of the amenability of the mineral to solution in natural weak acids and bases under the chemical conditions of water-containing ore bodies, and of the stability of the ions in aqueous solution. The migration coefficients for ground waters of Siberia were used.