Disproportionate Water Quality Impacts from the Century-Old Nautanen Copper Mines, Northern Sweden
Pollution from small historical mining sites is usually overlooked, in contrast to larger ones. Especially in the Arctic, knowledge gaps remain regarding the long-term mine waste impacts, such as metal leakage, on water quality. We study the small copper (Cu) mines of Nautanen, northern Sweden, whic...
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MDPI AG
2020
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041394 https://doaj.org/article/b120a6914b4a42b682ea7abe4abd4ee9 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:b120a6914b4a42b682ea7abe4abd4ee9 2023-05-15T14:53:39+02:00 Disproportionate Water Quality Impacts from the Century-Old Nautanen Copper Mines, Northern Sweden Sandra Fischer Gunhild Rosqvist Sergey R. Chalov Jerker Jarsjö 2020-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041394 https://doaj.org/article/b120a6914b4a42b682ea7abe4abd4ee9 EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1394 https://doaj.org/toc/2071-1050 2071-1050 doi:10.3390/su12041394 https://doaj.org/article/b120a6914b4a42b682ea7abe4abd4ee9 Sustainability, Vol 12, Iss 4, p 1394 (2020) abandoned mines mine waste metal mass flows arctic Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041394 2022-12-31T10:20:04Z Pollution from small historical mining sites is usually overlooked, in contrast to larger ones. Especially in the Arctic, knowledge gaps remain regarding the long-term mine waste impacts, such as metal leakage, on water quality. We study the small copper (Cu) mines of Nautanen, northern Sweden, which had been in operation for only six years when abandoned approximately 110 years ago in 1908. Measurements from field campaigns in 2017 are compared to synthesized historical measurement data from 1993 to 2014, and our results show that concentrations of Cu, Zn, and Cd on-site as well as downstream from the mining site are order(s) of magnitude higher than the local background values. This is despite the small scale of the Nautanen mining site, the short duration of operation, and the long time since closure. Considering the small amount of waste produced at Nautanen, the metal loads from Nautanen are still surprisingly high compared to the metal loads from larger mines. We argue that disproportionately large amounts of metals may be added to surface water systems from the numerous small abandoned mining sites. Such pollution loads need to be accounted for in sustainable assessments of total pollutant pressures in the relatively vulnerable Arctic environment. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Northern Sweden Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Nautanen ENVELOPE(20.883,20.883,67.183,67.183) Sustainability 12 4 1394 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
abandoned mines mine waste metal mass flows arctic Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
spellingShingle |
abandoned mines mine waste metal mass flows arctic Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Sandra Fischer Gunhild Rosqvist Sergey R. Chalov Jerker Jarsjö Disproportionate Water Quality Impacts from the Century-Old Nautanen Copper Mines, Northern Sweden |
topic_facet |
abandoned mines mine waste metal mass flows arctic Environmental effects of industries and plants TD194-195 Renewable energy sources TJ807-830 Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
description |
Pollution from small historical mining sites is usually overlooked, in contrast to larger ones. Especially in the Arctic, knowledge gaps remain regarding the long-term mine waste impacts, such as metal leakage, on water quality. We study the small copper (Cu) mines of Nautanen, northern Sweden, which had been in operation for only six years when abandoned approximately 110 years ago in 1908. Measurements from field campaigns in 2017 are compared to synthesized historical measurement data from 1993 to 2014, and our results show that concentrations of Cu, Zn, and Cd on-site as well as downstream from the mining site are order(s) of magnitude higher than the local background values. This is despite the small scale of the Nautanen mining site, the short duration of operation, and the long time since closure. Considering the small amount of waste produced at Nautanen, the metal loads from Nautanen are still surprisingly high compared to the metal loads from larger mines. We argue that disproportionately large amounts of metals may be added to surface water systems from the numerous small abandoned mining sites. Such pollution loads need to be accounted for in sustainable assessments of total pollutant pressures in the relatively vulnerable Arctic environment. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sandra Fischer Gunhild Rosqvist Sergey R. Chalov Jerker Jarsjö |
author_facet |
Sandra Fischer Gunhild Rosqvist Sergey R. Chalov Jerker Jarsjö |
author_sort |
Sandra Fischer |
title |
Disproportionate Water Quality Impacts from the Century-Old Nautanen Copper Mines, Northern Sweden |
title_short |
Disproportionate Water Quality Impacts from the Century-Old Nautanen Copper Mines, Northern Sweden |
title_full |
Disproportionate Water Quality Impacts from the Century-Old Nautanen Copper Mines, Northern Sweden |
title_fullStr |
Disproportionate Water Quality Impacts from the Century-Old Nautanen Copper Mines, Northern Sweden |
title_full_unstemmed |
Disproportionate Water Quality Impacts from the Century-Old Nautanen Copper Mines, Northern Sweden |
title_sort |
disproportionate water quality impacts from the century-old nautanen copper mines, northern sweden |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041394 https://doaj.org/article/b120a6914b4a42b682ea7abe4abd4ee9 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(20.883,20.883,67.183,67.183) |
geographic |
Arctic Nautanen |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Nautanen |
genre |
Arctic Northern Sweden |
genre_facet |
Arctic Northern Sweden |
op_source |
Sustainability, Vol 12, Iss 4, p 1394 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1394 https://doaj.org/toc/2071-1050 2071-1050 doi:10.3390/su12041394 https://doaj.org/article/b120a6914b4a42b682ea7abe4abd4ee9 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041394 |
container_title |
Sustainability |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1394 |
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1766325245974675456 |