The environmental and geomorphological impacts of historical gold mining in the Ohinemuri and Waihou river catchments, Coromandel, New Zealand

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985831%3A_____%2F17%3A00481060" target="_blank" >RIV/67985831:_____/17:00481060 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/61388980:_____/17:00506313

Result on the web

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.06.011" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.06.011</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.06.011" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.06.011</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The environmental and geomorphological impacts of historical gold mining in the Ohinemuri and Waihou river catchments, Coromandel, New Zealand

Original language description

Between 1875 and 1955 approximately 250,000 Mg yr− 1 of mercury-, arsenic-, and cyanide-contaminated mine tailings were discharged directly into the Ohinemuri River and its tributaries, in the Coromandel Region, North Island, New Zealand. A devastating flood on 14 January 1907 deposited large amounts of mine waste across the floodplain of the Ohinemuri and Waihou rivers in the vicinity of the township of Paeroa. The 1907 mine-waste flood deposit was located as a dirty yellow silt in cores and floodplain profiles, with a thickness ranging from 0.15–0.50 m. Geochemical analysis of the mine waste shows elevated concentrations of Pb (ca 200–570 mg kg− 1) and As (ca 30–80 mg kg− 1), compared to early Holocene background concentrations (Pb < 30 mg kg− 1, As < 17 mg kg− 1). Bulk sediment samples recovered from the river channel and overbank deposits also show elevated concentrations of Pb (ca 110 mg kg− 1), Zn (ca 140–320 mg kg− 1), Ag (ca 3 mg kg− 1), and Hg (ca 0.4 mg kg− 1). Using the mine-waste deposit as a chronological marker shows that sedimentation rates increased from ca 0.2 mm yr− 1 in the early Holocene, to 5.5–26.8 mm yr− 1 following the 1907 flood. Downstream trends in the thickness of the flood deposit show that local-scale geomorphic factors are a significant influence on the deposition of mine waste in such events. Storage of mine waste is greatest in the upstream reaches of the floodplain. The volume of mine waste estimated to be stored in the Ohinemuri floodplain is ca 1.13 M m3, an order of magnitude larger than recent well-publicised tailings-dam failures, such as the 1996 South America Porco, 2000 Romanian Baia Mare and Baia Borsa accidents, and constituted, and was recognised at the time, a significant geomorphological and environmental event. The mine-waste material remains in the floodplain today, representing a sizable legacy store of contaminant metals and metalloids that pose a long-term risk to the Ohinemuri and Waihou ecosystems.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10511 - Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Geomorphology

ISSN

0169-555X

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

295

Issue of the periodical within the volume

OCT 15 2017

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

17

Pages from-to

159-175

UT code for WoS article

000413175000013

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85030484987