Antimony in the Environment: From Natural Sources to Remediation Strategies
A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Mineralogy and Biogeochemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 December 2022) | Viewed by 255
Special Issue Editors
Interests: environmental mineralogy; arsenic and antimony mobility; Raman spectroscopy
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Antimony is an incredibly interesting chemical element, as a critical raw material with high economic importance for the EU, combined with a high risk associated with its supply.
There is no longer any primary antimony production in the EU. Overall, the EU is a net importer of antimony ores and concentrates, importing approximately 200 tons per year.
However, plenty of abandoned Sb deposits around the world hold large quantities of mine wastes. Old mine tailings impoundments and heaps could represent potential "secondary" deposits for the future, but sadly, they are also sources of environmental contamination.
The proper evaluation of contaminated ecosystems, and the migration of antimony, its speciation, sorption onto secondary minerals and ability to enter food chains, requires a complex interdisciplinary approach. Antimony, an element naturally occurring in the environment, toxic for humans, has been a target of much research in the past 20 years, but its behavior is still not completely known. The research interest in antimony increased rapidly after its concentrations started to be regulated in drinking water in many countries.
We invite contributions with any relation to antimony, from the mineralogical assessment of ore deposits, through weathering processes and mobility in any kinds of natural environments, to the remediation of environments contaminated by this potentially toxic element. Research articles with interdisciplinary approaches, combining geochemistry, mineralogy and (micro)biology, are highly welcomed.
Dr. Bronislava Lalinská-Voleková
Dr. Peter Šottník
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- antimony
- natural sources
- ore deposits
- environment
- contamination
- mobility
- sorption mechanism
- secondary minerals
- leaching
- remediation
- biominerals
