Examining Legacy Mine Tailings: Assessing Risk of Arsenic Release with ATR-FTIR
Environmental Studies
Annalie Earley Clark
- Grade:
- 12
- Teacher:
- Tadeo Pfister
This is a study on 12 legacy (over 100 years old) mine sites across the Western US. ATR-FTIR machine was employed to reveal the composition of mine tailing samples, which was then analyzed for the presence of arsenate and arsenite.
Good job on the well assembled project!
Nice and important work! My Dissertation work (in the 1980s) was how anaerobic bacteria in sediments can help clean water. You are totally correct that mine tailings are sort of a forever problem and devastating to ecosystems. You might also be interested to know that aerobic acidophilic bacteria, such as Thiobacillus ferroxidans, can accelerate weathering in mine tailings piles.
You mentioned this is a continuation project in your presentation of your project. Did you go to all the mines you mentioned to collect your samples? Being a senior in high school having done this type of research in high will really help you when you attend a college/university. Where was the ATR-FTIR spectrometor used? Was it in a private lab or was it in your chemistry classroom. What a great experience for you to learn how to use this device to collect data for your project. Outstanding project.
Thank you for allowing me to review and judge your project. I must ask, did you retrieve all your test samples yourself by going to each site? Your results were very interesting and it allowed you to learn how to use a spectrometor which will be very helpful when you attend college/university next year. Reclaiming contaminated mine tailings is becoming an important issue in the mining industry. Keep working on this project during your collegiate years please…