The setting and style of manganese mineralization in the Constantiaberg Massif, Cape Peninsula, South Africa

Manganese oxyhydroxide mineralization is widespread in the Constantiaberg Massif. It is largely hosted by west-northwest – east-southeast trending brittle structures in the competent Ordovician arenites of the Peninsula Formation of the Cape Supergroup. Manganese is also found impregnating more porous Peninsula Formation arenites and Quaternary scree. This study proposes that the more significant deposits at Hout Bay and Constantiaberg differ from most of the mineralization in that they are spatially associated with saprolithic dolerite dykes belonging to the 132 Ma False Bay dolerite dyke swarm. It is suggested that this deep weathering may be related to a Miocene palaeo-landsurface, yielding a maximum age for these more important Mn deposits. However, there is evidence for mineralization of different ages through the Quaternary Period. Apart from Mn-mineralization hosted by rare breccias containing hydrothermal quartz, most of the mineralization is supergene, having been leached and transported in reduced acidic groundwater and precipitated at or near a redox front in a near-surface environment.

Features and Constitutive Model of Gypsum’s Uniaxial Creep Damage considering Acidization

Acidic fluids cause rock erosion and further endanger the safety of rock engineering, especially the corrosion of pillars by acidic or weakly acidic groundwater. In this paper, the rock samples in the gypsum mining area were taken as the research object. Uniaxial compression creep tests were carried out under neutral water, pH=6 and pH=5 hydrochloric acid solutions, respectively. Meanwhile, the specimens before and after saturation were observed by an electron microscope scanner. The results show that (1) the gypsum specimens with pH=5 hydrochloric acid were damaged at the first stress level, while that with pH=6 and pH=7 were destroyed at the second stress level. The failure modes of the three groups were basically the same, with cleavage and end damage of different degrees. The difference is that the failure time of the former is earlier than that of the latter, which indicates that the stronger acidity causes greater corrosion on the creep of the samples. (2) From the perspective of microstructure, the samples saturated in the neutral aqueous solution and dry state are compact and complete in structure, and the whole is relatively homogeneous. However, after saturating in the acid solution, the samples significantly increased dense pores with large size and loose structure. Due to the rapid increase, the surfaces of the samples are almost like “holes”. (3) A new nonlinear creep constitutive model was established by connecting Burgers model with nonlinear viscoplastic body (NVPB) model in series, which can well describe the creep characteristics of gypsum rocks under acid corrosion.

Regularities of groundwater quality formation at the abandoned copper mines of Levikha ore field (Middle Urals, Russia)

In the Urals region in recent decades, dozens of copper mines, which are the most dangerous in terms of environmental impact, have been closed and flooded. In many of them, acid mine waters continue to form, the concentrations of most components in which exceed the permissible values by several orders of magnitude. The formation of the chemical composition of acidic groundwater has a pronounced unsteady character: a sharp increase in the content of all components in the water after flooding and a gradual decline for many years. On Levikha copper mine (Sverdlovsk region) after filling the depression con in 2007, a site of concentrated discharge of groundwater was formed (technogenic reservoir-a failure in the zone of collapse and displacement). The concentrations of many components 10 years after the completion of flooding are higher than during the development. The analysis of regularities of non-stationary character of hydrogeochemical processes is made on the basis of the data of detailed monitoring and extended definitions of groundwater quality indicators. The main source of acidic water with increased mineralization is the collapse zone, within which the process of drainage for several decades formed technogenic sulfuric acid weathering crust enriched with secondary minerals. According to the data of numerical geofiltration modeling, in the hydrodynamic balance the lateral flow coming from the surrounding areas is 60%, its value is manifested in the dilution of the solution, which is formed in the collapse zone. The time of movement of this flow in the area of collapse is 6–8 years, extremely high values of almost all indicators in the man-made reservoir are observed during this period. According to the inverse physical-chemical modeling (program code Visual MINTEQ ver. 3.0 / 3.1 was used) the composition of rocks, as a result of dissolution-deposition of which underground waters in the area of the flooded mine can be formed, is determined. The duration of the process of formation of acidic groundwater is estimated at tens of years.