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ANTHROPOGENIC COPPER INVENTORIES AND MERCURY PROFILES FROM LAKE SUPERIOR: EVIDENCE FOR MINING IMPACTS
Citation:
Kerfoot, C., R. Rossmann, S. L. Harting, AND J. A. Robbins. ANTHROPOGENIC COPPER INVENTORIES AND MERCURY PROFILES FROM LAKE SUPERIOR: EVIDENCE FOR MINING IMPACTS. JOURNAL OF GREAT LAKES RESEARCH 25:663-682, (2000).
Description:
During the past 150 years, the mining indstry discharged more than a billion tons of tailings along Lake Superior shorelines and constructed numerous smelters in the watershed. Given the vast size of Lake Superior, were sediment profiles at locations far offshore impacted by nearshore activities? Did copper and associated precious metal mining modify regional fluxes for copper and mercury? . . . Moreover, coastal sediment cores often show synchronous early increases in copper and mercury inventories back to mill and smelting sources. Direct assays of ores from thirteen mine sites confirm a natural amalgam source of mercury in the stamp mill discharges. Core records from inalnd lakes (Michigamme Project) also reveal patterns of copper and mercury inputs from a variety of mining sources: historic tailing inputs, amalgam assay releases, and atmospheric smelter plumes.