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Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Volume 206 pp 49–63Cite as

Fugitive Dust and Human Exposure to Heavy Metals Around the Red Dog Mine

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Part of the book series: Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology ((RECT,volume 206))

Abstract

The Red Dog Mine is a high-grade open pit lead–zinc mine located in the northwestern Brooks Range, about 130 km north of Kotzebue, Alaska (Kral 1992) (Fig. 1). The mine began operation in 1989 and exploration has revealed deposits such as the Aqqaluk Deposit that would allow mining to continue until 2031 (Liles 2006; USEPA 2007). The mine is operated at a rate of 5.4 kt/d (6,000 short tons/d). The mined ore is processed through crushing and grinding circuits, followed by froth flotation separation to produce zinc and lead concentrates in the mineralogical forms of sphalerite (zinc sulfide) and galena (lead sulfide), respectively. Because the sphalerite and galena are fine-grained, the ore is finely ground for effective separations in the flotation circuit. As a result, both the zinc and lead concentrates are very fine in particle size, with 80% of the final concentrates passing 30 and 20 μm screens, respectively. The flotation concentrates are dewatered using pressure filters, and the resultant dehydrated concentrates contain 7.5–8.0% moisture. The annual production of zinc and lead concentrates are 508 and 109 kt, respectively (Kral 1992). Dewatered zinc and lead concentrates produced at the Red Dog Mine site are hauled a distance of 84 km by truck along an unpaved road to the DeLong Mountain Regional Transportation System port on the Chukchi Sea, where it is then shipped to international markets (Liles 2006).

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Christopher H. Conaway for his helpful review of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    Elizabeth J. Kerin

  2. Mineral Industry Research Laboratory, Institute of Northern Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    Hsing K. Lin

  3. Department of Resources Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan

    Hsing K. Lin

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  1. Elizabeth J. Kerin
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  2. Hsing K. Lin
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Correspondence to Elizabeth J. Kerin .

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    David M. Whitacre

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Kerin, E.J., Lin, H.K. (2010). Fugitive Dust and Human Exposure to Heavy Metals Around the Red Dog Mine. In: Whitacre, D. (eds) Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Volume 206. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, vol 206. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6260-7_3

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