Methodological approach to characterizing pollution of natural water bodies using satellite data with account of aggregation of finely dispersed mineral processing waste

Abstract

The level of the environmental impact of the mining industry specifies the urgency of ecological management of the natural resources based on the satellite monitoring data. The high content of the suspended mineral particles in the industrial waters and the requirement to reduce their access to the natural water reservoirs determine the need to characterize the mininginduced pollution that can be carried out correctly with due account of the aggregate stability of dispersions. In spite of the theoretical concepts, prediction of the particles aggregation is limited by a lack of data on their interaction parameters. In order to parametrize the interactions in the mineral-water-mineral system it is proposed to use experimental data on aggregation of finely dispersed particles, obtained by the laser diffraction method in the equilibrium conditions. For this purpose the procedure of the experimental appraisal of the effective Hamaker constants has been elaborated using ores of developed deposits of the Kola mining complex as an example. The authors have studied the conditions of the surface layer of natural water reservoirs in the most industrially developed central part of the Murmansk region and defined characteristics of pollution with finely dispersed by-products of the mineral raw material treatment, according to the satellite observation data of the spatial distribution of the normalized difference turbidity index. The authors have established that the least propagation of the pollution into the natural water reservoirs is observed in the case of the apatite-nepheline ores processing by-products, which is explained by the effective aggregation of the finely dispersed nepheline particles. The proposed approach to apply data on mineral particles aggregation for interpretation of the satellite observations does not require carrying out in-situ observations and makes it possible to identify the mining-induced pollution of natural water reservoirs in industrial territories using suspended particles.