Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

In this study, three sites of historical gold heap leaching tailings in Gansu and Xinjiang were taken as the research object, and the pollution status of gold heap leaching tailings and surrounding soil and groundwater in the three sites was studied. A total of 195 gold heap leaching tailings samples and 469 soil samples (including 12 control point samples) and 45 groundwater samples (including 3 control point samples) were collected. The results showed that total cyanide (in terms of CN-), Cu, As, Cd, Zn, Pb and Ni factors were detected by acid leaching or water leaching in the samples of historical gold heap leaching tailings. The arsenic elements of some monitoring points in the soil around the gold heap leaching tailings exceeded the standard. The arsenic content in the soil and groundwater around the heap leaching tailings is obviously higher, which is related to the high arsenic content in the gold mine associated with cyanide heap leaching gold extraction. With the passage of time, after rain water scour and leachate, the soil and groundwater at the bottom of the tail slag and nearby suffer arsenic pollution.