An assessment of Cabeço do Pião Tailings aiming its recovery of metals as a sustainable alternative

Abstract

The present work is under development within the scope of ERA-MIN/0007/2015 REMinE project, aiming to assess the recovery of metals present in an abandoned mine tailings deposit, located in central Portugal, named as Cabeço do Pião. These materials have been exposed to atmospheric conditions through the last 90 years posing a risk to the environment in general. Nevertheless, they may contain significant content of valuable metals, such as tungsten. The multivariate analysis was applied to the elemental chemical data of the tailings, and it allowed to establish mineralogical associations, proving to be a useful planning tool in a future re-mining of the tailings deposit. Re-mining these tailings can be considered as a solution that minimizes environmental impacts recovering some essential metals at the same time.