Study on the mechanism and kinetics of manganese release from waste manganese ore waste rock under rainfall leaching.

Manganese released from the piled manganese ore wastes is a great threat to the local ecosystem and human health. The mechanism and dynamic characteristics of manganese release from the manganese ore wastes were studied based on the static and dynamic experiments. The concentration of manganese in the leaching solution under the intensive state is twice that resulted from the static state; the manganese release from the waste rock increased with the increase of the solid-liquid ratio and reached 922.3 mg/L when the solid-liquid ratio was 1:5. When the particle size of waste rock was less than 180 μm, the release amount of manganese was the largest and reached 491.3 mg/L. When the pH was 7 and the rainfall intensity was 80 mL/h, the increase of leaching time contributed to the rapidly decreased amount of manganese released, and the leaching process reached equilibrium gradually. The cumulative release of manganese increased with the increase of rainfall duration. In the dynamic leaching process, the change of pH and EC of the leachate had nothing to do with the initial pH of leaching agent but has a close relationship with the hydrolysis of minerals in waste. According to the experimental results, it was found that the double constant equation model fitted the kinetic process of release process better. The purpose of this study was to provide a scientific basis for the assessment and control of manganese pollution in soil and groundwater in manganese mining area.