Assessment of metal availability to vegetation (Betula pendula) in Pb-Zn ore concentrate residues with different features

In this work, characterisation of several ore concentrate remains from an abandoned Pb-Zn mining factory was performed determining chemical and physical properties such as pH, organic carbon content, particle size distribution, total heavy metal content (Pb, Zn, Cu, As and Cd) as well as mineralogical composition which showed, in most cases, the oxidization of the parent ore material (mostly galena: PbS and sphalerite: ZnS) to more mobile fractions as anglesite (PbSO4) and goslarite (ZnSO4). Moreover, two operational defined extraction procedures commonly used in soil and sediment studies (first and second steps of BCR procedure and DTPA extraction protocol) were applied in the different mining wastes in order to study Pb and Zn mobility and likely bioavailability to Betula pendula growing on the same mining spoils, which presents lead and zinc contents in leaves over ten times background values. Physicochemical characteristics and mineralogy of mining tailings determine metal availability to vegetation in abandoned mining sites.This work has been done in the framework of the Transmin Project, founded by the Spanish National Research Programme (PPQ-2001-2100-C04) and within the CSIC-JNICT (Spain-Portugal) international co-operation agreement (2001PT0009). Finally, Marguí, E., gratefully acknowledges a grant from the Government of Catalonia (2002FI00577).Peer reviewe