Environmental State in the Portuguese Test Site: S. Domingos Mine: Past
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Environmental State in the Portuguese Test Site: S. Domingos Mine: Past and Present Portugal – May 2000 Mértola GTK/RS/2004/19 Environmental State:Past and present MINEO Project Primary author of this report is : Maria João Batista IGM Instituto Gelogicao e Mineiro Apartado 7586 Esrrada de Portela – Zambujal 2720 Alfragide PORTUGAL INDEX 1. INTRODUCTION 2 2. S. DOMINGOS MINING HISTORY 3 3. IMPACT OF MINING ACTIVITY IN S. DOMINGOS REGION: POPULATION, LOCAL AND NACIONAL ECONOMY 6 4. EVOLUTION IN EXPLOITATION PLAN DURING MASON & BARRY LABOUR 9 5. S. DOMINGOS MINE GEOLOGY 11 6. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS CAUSED BY MINING EXPLOITATION 16 7. SUMMARY CHARACTERISATION OF S. DOMINGOS DRAINAGE SYSTEM 26 8. PREVIOUS STUDIES OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND CHARACTERISATION PROBLEMS 29 9. AVAILABLE INFORMATION PRODUCED DURING EXPLORATION WORKS SINCE 1960 38 10. REFERENCES 39 1 Environmental State:Past and present MINEO Project 1. INTRODUCTION In the Alentejo, Portugal, mining tradition originates from pre-roman and roman times. This activity is marked by numerous mining occurrences that deserve special care from local and central authorities and a special effort to transform them into museum attractions. S. Domingos Mine, located in the Southeast part of Portugal in the Baixo Alentejo Province, approximately 60 Km SE from Beja, is one of those historical mining centres that date from pre- and roman times. Its particular features lies in the unusual characteristics of the area, showing a unique beautiful landscape. All the recent historical mining past during the last 150 years is an important part of the Portuguese cultural assets. The large area covered by the mine, resulting from the more than 25 MT tons of ore that have been extracted during mining works, make it one of the most interesting abandoned mines in Portugal (CARVALHO,1971 in GASPAR, 1996). The main activity of the mine was copper concentrate production. Aside from this, 9.9 Mt of cupriferous pyrite were processed as an elementary source of sulphur (REGO, 2000). The Mine is located in an eroded peneplain, dipping gently to the NW and SSE. The climate is Mediterranean type with Atlantic and/or Continental influences, characterised by long dry summers and short winters. Most of the area is covered with thin soils. Natural rock outcrops are abundant in the São Domingos region. The population density is low and their main activity was dedicated to mining of sulphide deposits during exploitation activity (until 1966). 2 Environmental State:Past and present MINEO Project 2. S. DOMINGOS MINING HISTORY Pre-roman period Almost every archaeological study in VMS mines in the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) show evidence of pre-roman exploitations of precious metals and copper in surficial ores, as a result of their concentration by supergene alteration. Through time the mine rejects showed that the metal underwent alterations such that different periods of mining can be recognised. Analytical studies of copper objects in the III millennium a.C. shows Ag while objects from the II millennium do not. The studies of waste piles with different colours and different grain sizes also shows variations in metallurgical processes as well as stand-still periods. While at S. Domingos there were few studies carried out, other areas in the IPB showed that there was pre-Roman mining activity. There is still doubt among several authors about the age of the exploitations and civilisations that existed in the Mediterranean basin. The presence of stone hammers used in mining works near the ancient explorations, as well as different colours of smelted materials (slag) are present in such quantities that they cannot be explained only by roman works alone. Also, objects similar of the one's used in Mesopotamia during the Copper and Bronze Ages and megalithic monuments are found near mining areas in the Southern Iberian Peninsula (GASPAR, 1998). Roman period The calculation of exploitation during the Roman period has been estimated by several authors from the volumes of ancient waste piles and the respective chemical composition phases. The existent literature is few but very clear and shows that at S. Domingos during this period the underground works went below the hydrostatic level. The volumes of exploration were calculated in more then 150 000 m3 of ore. Roman works are also found in Chança (GASPAR, 1998). 3 Environmental State:Past and present MINEO Project Romans exploited the mine for gold from the iron cap and small galleries that probably date from that time can be recognised. These ancient mining activities were largely confined to the oxidised ore near the surface (WEBB, 1958). Post- roman period Since the roman expulsion by the Visigoths c.a. 405 a.C., there followed a period of almost no mining activity in IPB except maybe at Aljustrel and one or two mines in Spain until 1492 during the Islamic occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. XIX Century exploitation A temporary exploitation concession of S. Domingos Mine was awarded in 1858 to Ernest Déligny, Luis Decazes and Eugenio Leclere as concessionaires of Nicolau Biava and permanent license was given in 1859 when Diogo Mason took charge. Mason & Barry, Ltd., the mining explorers since 1859, carried out the construction of a typical mining village, whose typology characterises the classical industrial period. They created rigorous urban planning and the village was almost autonomous with farms, orchards and even with its own police force (ALVES, 1997). The mining plan began in 1859 but the underground and surface mining only began in 1863. Because the copper values were fluctuating, only the richest ones were sent to England where incineration processes were used to extract sulphuric acid. This extraction process was experimental in closed ovens, in order to avoid environmental problems similar to the one that occurred in Rio Tinto (near São Domingos in the Spanish IPB) as well as the heavy recompensations that were paid to the owners of polluted lands. This process in open environment produced gases rich in SO2, As, Sb and Tl that provoked disastrous effects in fauna and flora of the region of Rio Tinto where there is no fauna and flora until today. In S. Domingos the first products extracted by incineration processes were separated and the richest nodules were submitted to a fusion process. The leaching of the poor products was carried out in cementation tanks but this process was abandoned in 1868 because of technical difficulties and high costs. When copper prices went down, the mine management decided to leach the material in a raw state, making the recovery more efficient. 4 Environmental State:Past and present MINEO Project Summary of method utilised: 1 - separation of Cu>2% from Cu <2% in four piles, fines and poor material; 2 - crushing of the richest and course grained material to pieces of more or less 5 cm; 3 - accumulation of Cu<2% in piles with interior channels made of gravel material for easy circulation of the air, sandstone chimneys to control temperature of the process as this process was strongly exothermic; 4 - the leaching of the piles with water controlling the temperature to avoid spontaneous combustion of the mined material and excessive formation of sulphuric acid that could make a poor cement and raise the iron consumption (GASPAR, 1998). The Cu 0,4-0,7 % was exported to produce sulphuric acid, the leaching products had 14% of Cu and were lidded to the tanks to decant particles and sent to cementation tanks. The iron used in the process was about 20 000t a year. From the 4 Mt of copper mineralization extracted since 1870 until 1887, 334 575 t were transported to the treatment factory in Achada do Gamo and 378 320 t of washed product and 85 046t of copper cement were exported. In Swansea, England, part of the material was to obtain copper and part was to obtain gold and silver (GASPAR, 1998). XX Century exploitation At the beginning of the XX Century the evolution of the sulphuric acid industry favoured of sulphuric acid extraction from pyrite and the increase of exportations resulted in the mining out of some ores, e.g. in Sicily. This resulted in an increase in exploitation of pyrite in the S. Domingos Mine. From 1913 until 1932 São Domingos produced 3 445 533 t of copper ore and between 1923 to 1932, 3616 t of Cu cement with average values of 72,33%. At the end of 1960, a new crisis caused by native sulphur market concurrence extracted by sulphur ores of low degree in deep ores (by hot water pressure) and the external market gave place to internal consumption of sulphides to the sulphur acid factories. As an example, as much as 430 000 t of acid were produced in factories like QUIMIGAL and SAPEC, being most of it used to produce fertilisers. From the beginning of pre-roman times until 1968, according to CARVALHO (1971) the Mine produced 25 Mt of ore (GASPAR, 1998). 5 Environmental State:Past and present MINEO Project Some doubts remain (unresolved) about the mining out of the ore. V. OLIVEIRA (pers. com., 1999), thinks that is possible that the ore continues deeper but not laterally. It’s the only mine where there is only one known orebody. The landscape in São Domingos is now a remarkable example of the deep alterations that were produced by industrial exploitations during more than 100 years; the mining exploitation carried out for 107 years. The Mine was closed in 1966, due to exhaustion of the ore. 3. IMPACT OF MINING ACTIVITY IN S. DOMINGOS REGION: POPULATION, LOCAL AND NACIONAL ECONOMY Implantation of a mining industry in a region, through times, always forced the fixation of population in the vicinity of the mining activity.