Electrical Conductivity of Soil Contaminated with Post-mining Zn-Pb Wastes

Preliminary tests were performed to evaluate the electrical conductivity of soils and analyse the effect of water content on soils contaminated with post-mining wastes . Depending on soil type different electrical conductivity (EC) and different relations between electrical conductivity and water content were observed. The soils contaminated with post-flotation wastes were characterized by much higher electrical conductivity (EC=1,5 – 8,3 mS/m) than the soils contaminated with post-launder wastes (EC=0,8 – 0,9 mS/m). This relationship was linear for the samples of uncontaminated soils and contaminated with post-launder wastes while for the soil samples contaminated with post-flotation wastes this relationship was exponential.