Keywords
well
river
mining industry
water quality
How to Cite
Abstract
This paper presents the evaluation of physicochemical parameters of samples from a gold leaching plant and surrounding waters (groundwater and a river). A potentiometric selective electrode was calibrated in the concentration range of 1.99×10‒5 to 7.9×10‒3 mol/L for cyanide quantification. The calibration showed a Nernstian response with a slope of ‒61.8 mV/dec (R2 = 0.9938), the practical detection limit was 1.45×10-6 mol/L, while the lower limit of linear response was 3.17×10-6 mol/L. The use of this sensor provides advantages such as shorter analysis time, less operational difficulty and fewer interferences compared to traditional cyanide methods such as volumetry or spectrophotometry. Various samples from gold leaching stages at a plant in Santiago de Cuba (Cuba) were analyzed. No cyanide contamination was detected in a river and two wells surrounding the plant, which are used as a source of drinking water. Other water quality parameters were analyzed in the two wells that showed elevated levels of nitrite and nitrate compared to quality standards, indicating contamination of biological origin or due to agricultural activities that do not allow the use of these groundwaters for drinking.
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