La mine Marban est située dans le sud de la ceinture de roches vertes de l'Abitibi, dans le secteur minier de Val d'Or-Malartic. Les roches encaissantes de la mine sont une alternance d'unités mafiques et ultramafiques de la Formation de Jacola. La mine Marban a produit 1 983 112 tonnes à 5.27 g/t d'or (Au) pour un total de 330 027 onces entre 1961 et 1974. Le minerai aurifère de la mine Marban est encaissé par une unité mafique, principalement dans sa partie cisaillée et plissée. Le gisement est situé dans la zone de cisaillement Marbenite, orientée est-sud-est -ouest-nord-ouest. La géologie locale montre une alternance d'unités mafiques et ultramafiques cisaillées et plissées, recoupées par des dykes dioritiques et gabbroïques ainsi que par des intrusions granodioritiques dans la partie nord du secteur. De récents forages carottés ont permis d'établir la géométrie 3D des unités présentes. Les unités mafiques et ultramafiques forment quatre plis isoclinaux serrés dont le plan axial est généralement orienté est-sud est/ouest-nord ouest, et incliné vers le nord de 45° à 60°. Il semble donc que la minéralisation exploitée à la mine Marban soit logée dans les charnières des plis antiformes développés dans une unité de roches mafiques, à proximité du contact avec une unité de roches ultramafiques, ou le long du plan axial de ces plis. L'étude des figures de déformation des roches de Marban montrent que le secteur a subit des déformations cassantes et ductiles, provoquées par l'orogénie Kénoréenne. La forme des minéraux métalliques dont celle des grains d'or suggère que la minéralisation a subit au moins une partie de ces déformations. Il semble donc que le gisement de Marban soit précoce par rapport aux évènements associés à l'orogénie Kénoréenne. D'après ces éléments, l'âge de précipitation de l'or de Marban est pré-à syn-tectonique. Une étude métallogénique et minéralogique des carottes de sondage a permis de déterminer qu'une grande partie de la minéralisation aurifère récemment découverte dans les forages se concentre le long du contact entre les unités de roches mafiques et ultramafiques. On y a par exemple obtenu des teneurs de 6.08 g/t Au sur 6.5 m, et de 2,44 g/t Au sur 9 m sur les flancs du pli antiforme contenant le gisement de la mine Marban. D'autre part, des mesures de la susceptibilité magnétique des lithologies recoupées par les sondages font apparaître une diminution de la teneur en magnétite des roches ultramafiques à l'approche du contact avec les roches mafiques adjacentes. L'hypothèse de la mise en place de l'or est que des fluides enrichis en CO₂ et en complexes bisulfurés porteurs d'or sont associés à une altération des différentes lithologies de Marban, forçant ainsi des échanges métasomatiques. L'altération des roches ultramafiques (komatiites) en roches à talc-carbonate aurait provoqué la transformation de la magnétite en pyrite par interaction avec des fluides riches en CO₂ et en soufre réduit. Des cristaux de magnétite corrodés par de la pyrite ont notamment été observés. Dans ce type d'environnement, la cristallisation de la pyrite entraîne indirectement la précipitation de l'or transporté par les fluides. La minéralisation aurifère apparaît donc comme le produit d'une altération métasomatique entre des unités de composition contrastée, mafique-ultramafique. Cette altération se manifeste souvent sous forme d'auréoles aurifères enrichies en chlorite, carbonates, et pyrite le long des contacts entre les différentes lithologies. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Abitibi, Formation de Jacola, Mine Marban, Minéralisation aurifère, Roches basaltiques, Roches ultramafiques, Altération métasomatique, Complexes bisulfurés, Fluides, Pyrite, Magnétite, Chlorites.

Surface mining often changes the native landscape and vegetation of an area. Reclamation is used to counter this change, with the goal of restoring the land to its original pre-mined state. The process of reclamation creates early successional-stage lands, such as grasslands, shrublands, and wetlands, attracting new plant and animal species to the area. I compared avian species density (number of individuals/ha), diversity (H'), and richness (number of species/ha) on reclaimed and non-mined lands at TXU's Big Brown Mine in Fairfield, Texas. I also compared my results to those of a previous study conducted 25 years earlier. Avian counts were conducted using a fixedradius point-count method on 240 points placed in four different vegetation types and in four land-age groups (time since being reclaimed). Vegetation was measured both locally, and at a landscape level. Overall bird species density did not exhibit a clear relationship on non-mined versus reclaimed land. Overall bird species diversity was greater on non-mined lands, whereas overall species richness was greater on reclaimed lands. My results demonstrated a lower mean/point bird density and higher mean/point bird diversity than were found 25 years earlier. Different nesting guilds occurred on the reclaimed lands than occurred on the non-mined lands. Results suggested different species were attracted to the several successional stages of reclaimed lands over the nonmined lands, which consisted of climax vegetation. The different successional stages of reclaimed lands increased overall diversity and richness of the landscape as a whole. Five bird species of conservation concern were observed in the study, all of which occurred on reclaimed land. Four of the five species primarily occurred on reclaimed lands. Future land management should include conserving different successional-stage lands to increase overall biotic diversity and richness of mined land, preserving reclaimed habitat for species of concern, and educating future private landowners on the importance of maintaining vegetative and bird species diversity.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 379 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xv, 214 p. : ill. (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-94).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xviii, 163 p. : ill. (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-162).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 183 p. : ill. (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-182).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 130 p. : ill. (some col.), map (part col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-130).

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Mining-Influenced Water (MIW) poses major environmental issues in New Zealand and worldwide due to a legacy of unmitigated mining activities. As conventional MIW treatment technologies can be very costly in terms of chemical and energy inputs, cheaper and environmentally-friendly alternative remediation strategies have been developed. These so-called passive treatment technologies include a range of engineered systems relying on biogeochemical processes able to mitigate the acidity and to immobilize the metals in MIW. The present research, built on previous work conducted at the University of Canterbury, investigated the use of waste materials in mesocosm lab-scale sulfate-reducing bioreactors (SRBR) to treat actual mining-influenced water (MIW) sourced at an active coal mine in New Zealand. Specifically, this study investigated using waste mussel shells as an alkaline amendment (instead of the more conventional material limestone), with organic waste materials such as wood byproducts and compost in complex substrate mixtures in upward-flow SRBR. The influence of hydraulic retention times of approximately 3 and 10 days (HRT; i.e. the contact time between the MIW and the substrate mixtures in the SRBR) on the treatment performances was also evaluated. Overall, each system successfully treated the MIW (e.g. increased the pH > 6 and removed >78 % of the metals, except Mn) during the first 5-month treatment period, while during the second 5-month period, the treatment systems containing limestone and/or operating at a short HRT started to show signs of decreased efficiency. Generally, the system containing mussel shell and operating at a long HRT was constantly the most efficient system. Over the whole 41-week period of treatment, key metal removal efficiencies ranged between 97.6 and 99.7 % (Al), 83.9 and 95.2 % (Fe), and 9.2 and 38.8 % (Mn). Sulfate removal, in terms of moles of sulfate removed per cubic meter of substrate per day, was on average below the design values of 0.3 mol/m3/d, and ranged between 0.03 and 0.55 mol/m3/d (median values were 0.26 to 0.3 mol/m3/d during the first 5-month period but dropped to 0.094 to 0.1 mol/m3/d during the second 5-month treatment period). The SRBR containing mussel shell instead of limestone resulted in significantly higher alkalinity generation (between 32 to 85 % higher) and higher metal removals (between 0.6 % higher for Al and 14 % higher for Ni). These results were mainly attributed to the unique mineralogy of the mussel shell which comprises of aragonite with traces of calcite, while limestone comprises of pure calcite with traces of quartz. The statistical analyses showed that the sulfate reduction was not significantly affected by the alkalinity source. Similarly, systems operating at a longer HRT (10 days instead of 3 days) showed better treatment performances than systems operating at a short HRT in terms of alkalinity generation (44 to 62% higher), metal removal (between 0.5 % higher for Al to 15 % higher for Ni, and between 17 to 23 % higher for Mn), and sulfate reduction (50 to 77 % higher). Overall, the systems operation on a longer HRT were dominated by a more reduced environment facilitating the precipitation of metal sulfides, while the reactors running on a shorter HRT were constantly maintained out of equilibrium by the continuous addition of fresh MIW. Chemical and mineralogical analyses performed on the spent substrates suggested that the metals were removed through precipitation as, and adsorption onto, metal sulfides (Fe, Zn, Ni, Cu), (oxy)hydroxides (Al, Fe, Zn), and carbonates (Mn, Zn). Mn, a metal known to be harder to remove from solution was likely removed through the precipitation of rhodochrosite (MnCO3) and via adsorption onto the organic matter. These results generally corroborated the results obtained using the geochemical modeling PHREEQC. Overall, this study showed that mussel shells are not only a sustainable and effective alternative to mined limestone, but their use in SRBR would also result in a better treatment of MIW. Additionally, even though an increase in HRT resulted in a better contaminant removal, a HRT of approximately 3 days was sufficient to remove about 80% of all metals (except Mn). Therefore, the difficult choice of an optimal HRT must balance the need to meet a specific effluent quality while keeping the treatment time reasonably short, and an intermediate retention time of approximately 6 days could be optimal.

No description available.