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By P. Meyers, F. DeSilva, L. Gottlieb

A number of tests looking at lead removal using ion exchange resins of various types from various aqueous streams have been undertaken. The tests focused on strong acid cation (SAC) and weak acid cation 0N AC) resins. It was found that the mechanism of lead removal is partly by lead filtration rather than solely by ion exchange in a large portion of the applications studied. This is not surprising since lead carbonate is essentially insoluble and almost all water supplies contain at least some carbonate alkalinity. Regeneration of lead from exhausted resins containing significant amounts of lead may not be practical in some cases because of the large chemical and waste volumes involved. Since lead, .·along with many other very insoluble metals, is often present as a suspended solid rather than in ionic form, ion exchange is probably not always the best technology for bulk lead removal.

Jan 1, 2000

By Fumiatsu Sato

In recent years, an increasing number of urban soil contamination cases have been found during redevelopment of former factory sites. Hydroclassification technique, separating heavily contaminated fine soil particles from contaminated sites, is one of the economical remediation techniques for contaminated soil by heavy metals, but the separated fine soil particles are generally landfilled because of the difficulty in removing strongly adsorbed heavy metals on them. In the previous study, the authors have investigated the mechanism and the optimum condition of chlorination-volatilization technique to eliminate heavy metals from inorganic waste and found it was needed to heat up around 1273K. In this paper, a new remediation technique for lead contaminated fine soil particles is proposed. This technique is composed of chlorination and subsequent warm water extraction. In the chlorination step, water-insoluble lead complex is chlorinated to be water-soluble lead chloride without volatilization, by heating the soils with MgCl2-CaCl2-KCl salt mixture at relatively low temperature. By subsequent warm water extraction, lead chloride is leached out. Effects of chlorination conditions, such as time, temperature, composition of the salt and added salt ratio, on lead behavior were investigated. It was proved that lead concentration could be reduced below Japanese environmental standard.

Jan 1, 2006

Lead Removal from Contaminated Soils with Chelating Agents

Sep 13, 2010

By John M. Gaines

Lead concentrates from the Viburnum Trend in the Southeast Missouri Lead district are sintered prior to smelting to bind the particles together homogenize the feed, and reduce the sulfur content. Good sinter forms competent masses about 4 to 6 inches across, that hal!e about 15% porosity and good mechanical strength to withstand transport and the weight of the overlying load in the smelter. Bad sinter has poor mechanical strength and forms fine fragments that retard the circulation of reducing gases in the furnace and lengthen the time required for reduction. The productivity of the lead smelter depends on good sinter feed. Because some lead sinter plants produce bad sinter about 20% of the time, this applied mineralogy study has been undertaken to determine the mineralogical and microtextural differences between good and bad sinter. A reflected light microscopic study of 130 polished sections has shown that good and bad sinters differ distinctly in their mineralogy, tex1ure. and character of, porosity. Good sinter consists of hardystonite, franklinite. lead-zinc-bearing magnesium-calcium silicate, lead silicate matrix, and large crystals of calcium-magnesium-iron silicate, together with minor amounts of lead oxides, lead-zinc silicate, metallic lead, specular hematite, magnetite, lead-iron-bearing zincite and zinc-Iead-magnesium-bearing wustite in a tightly intergrown mesh of crystals and with an evenly distributed porosity of 15% to 20%. Electron microprobe analyses show that the principal phases contain lead (or zinc): hardystonite (4-20% Pb) franklinite (2-14% Pb) and lead silicate matrix (65-74% Pb). Bad sinter differs from good sinter in the greater abundance of lead silicate matrix, galena metallic lead, and lead oxides and the lesser abundance of hardystonite, franklinite and calcium-magnesium-iron silicate. Bad Sinter is characterized by a lack of an intimate intergrowth of the constituent phases. Its porosity is much lower commonly 0 to 5% and those pores are concentrated in local areas rather than distributed evenly throughout the sinter.

Jan 1, 1991

By D. A. Martin, Laird Crocker, W. I. Nissen

The Federal Bureau of Mines has developed a process for removing SO2 from stack gases. The process comprises absorption of SO2 in an. aqueous solution of sodium citrate, citric acid, and sodium thiosulfate, followed by reaction of the absorbed SO2 with H2S to precipitate sulfur and regenerate the citrate solution for recycle. A pilot plant was operated at The Bunker Hill Co. lead smelter in Kellogg, Idaho, to assess the feasibility of using the process for flue gas desulfurization. Nominal capacity of the pilot plant, which treated .tail gas from the lead smelter sintering furnace, was 1699 standard meters cubed per hour (15 degrees celsius) of 0.3- to 0.7-percent-SO2 gas yielding about 272 net kilograms of sulfur per day. The pilot plant was operated for about 4500 hours and produced more than 45 net tonnes of sulfur. The operation demonstrated that (1) more than 95 percent of the SO2 could be removed from the lead smelter sintering furnace tail gases, (2) regeneration of the citrate solution with H2S and precipitation of sulfur in conventional stirred vessels was readily controlled and highly efficient, (3) the precipitated sulfur could be continuously recovered as a 99.5-percent-pure product by kerosine flotation and melting, and (4) the 77- to 79-percent-H2S gas used for sulfur precipitation could be readily produced from pilot plant product sulfur, natural gas, and steam. Projected operating costs, including capital charges, for a citrate plant, installed at a 118 000-tonne-per-year lead smelter and treating 49 271 standard meters cubed per hour of lead smelter sintering furnace tail gas, are estimated to be $384 per tonne of sulfur.

Jan 1, 1976

By Jean L. Leroy

The Lead Smelting works of Metallurgie Hoboken S.A. are located on the banks of the river Scheldt a few miles South of Antwerp. Lead refining began at Hoboken in 1687, when it was restricted mainly to desilverizing lead bullion from Central America. Since then, various changes have been made to develop the works into a comprehensive and integrated custom smelter and refinery. Multiple hearth roasting furnaces, down-draft sinter machines and blast furnaces of standard design are used for the treatment of "complex" lead ores and secondary materials. A lead refinery based on the Harris process, with Parkes desilverizing followed by vacuum dezincing and Kroll Betterton debismuthizing was commissioned in 1967. Facilities for the recovery of precious metals, bismuth, antimony, arsenic and sulfuric acid are available. Special problems arise from the presence of large quantities of copper in the materials treated.

Jan 1, 1970

By G. C. Hancock

The operating plant of The Broken Hill Associated Smelters Pty. Ltd. is situated at Port Pirie in South Australia and it treats to finality the whole output of lead concentrates from the mines of The Zinc Corporation Ltd., North Broken Hill Ltd., and aroken Hill South Ltd. at Broken Hill, New South Wales. Lead bearing ores from other sources are also purchased for treatment and lead scrap and residues are treated on a toll charge basis. The present output of the plant is approximately 200000 tonnes of refined lead per annum and there is a substantial production of by-products including refined silver, gold, cadmium, antimonial lead alloys, copper matte and sulphuric acid. Recently the Company commenced the production of zinc by slag fuming and electrolysis from a six million ton dump of lead blast furnace slag, which has been accumulating at Port Pirie for over fifty years. The slag fuming plant contains two furnaces of conventional design, but features a high degree of pre-heat for the blast air and this is obtained by the use of all-metal recuperators. The raw zinc oxide fume produced by the plant is roasted in a rotary kiln prior to treatment in the leaching and electrolysis sections, which follow conventional practice for nigh current density plants. Present output is approximately 36000 tonnes of electrolytic zinc per annum.

Jan 1, 1970

By Kazue Moriya

At the 1980 TMS-AIME world symposium, Dr. Davey mentioned that the traditional lead blast furnace is now being challenged by direct smelting processes. In the copper smelting field both the blast furnace and reverberatory furnace are also disappearing in favour of direct smelting processes such as Outokumpu flash smelting, Mitsubishi continuous smelting, Noranda furnace, Inco furnace and so on. Those new processes all have the following in common: (1) High degree of mechanization (2) Metallurgical reactions carried out in closed vessels (3) Application of oxygen and/or oxygen enriched air (4) Minimization of handling materials and gaseous volume (5) Minimum energy requirements (6) Removal of workers from near the furnace (7) Reduction of emissions of harmful gas to meet environmental regulations. (8) Improvement to the work place environment to avoid occupational hygiene hazards. Direct and continuous smelting of powdered concentrate in one vessel was a romance of the metallurgist since early times. However as mentioned above, in the copper field this objective is being achieved in practice. The industry however can't deny that the serious and severe regulation of environmental pollution in every country was the prime motive for the modernization of smelters. In early days, to meet regulations, it was anticipated that many economic difficulties such as higher capital and energy costs and extravagant use of resources and waste disposal would be the result. "Turn a misfortune into a blessing" is an old saying which reveals the current thinking and reacent developments in the nonferrous industries. In the last ten years in the lead smelting field, about two decades later than copper, commercial scale smelting using new furnance technology has started. The KIVCET process and QSL process, which is flash smelting and bath smelting respectively, are becoming major competitors. They will be sure to upgrade their processes to remain economically and environmentally viable in the comming decade.

Jan 1, 1990

By Edgar Newhouse

THE lead smeltery at East Helena, Mont., controlled by the American Smelting & Refining Co. since 1899, has been in continuous operation for the past 25 years. Most of the old smelting and roasting practices have been superseded by newer and more modern methods, but on account of the difficulties involved in changing the original construction, some of the methods in use of handling materials are not the most modern. This plant, however, is particularly interesting as being one of the few essentially lead smelteries in the United States. At Federal, Ill., Collinsville, Herculaneum, and possibly other places, similar work is being done, but it is doubtful whether any of them produces as' much lead as the East Helena plant, whose monthly production averages 6,500 tons. The situation, 5 miles east of Helena, is convenient to both the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads, while the electric power is obtained from Canyon Ferry, 12 miles east on the Missouri river. Local quarries supply the requisite amount of lime rock, Which the contracts require to be crushed to 5 in. Of the 450 men on the monthly pay roll, a census showed 200 Austrians, 110 Americans, and 30 Italians, the balance being made up of miscellaneous nationalities. The ore supply is mainly derived from the Coeur d'Alêne mines in Idaho, and consists of crude ore, coarse and fine concentrates, middlings, and slimes. About one-half of the total output of the Coeur d'Alêne camp is sent to East Helena. An average analysis of these ores gives approximately 40 per cent. lead and 11 per cent. sulphur. Local shipments, varying, from month to month, are mostly highly siliceous gold and silver ores carrying little lead. Small shippers, leasers of old mines, and prospectors are very numerous throughout Montana, and it is the policy of the company to encourage these men by every possible means, including the free sampling and analysis of their ores and aid in the development of their mines and prospects whenever their results show promise.

Jan 8, 1914

Discussion of the paper of EDGAR L. NEWHOUSE, presented at the Salt Lake meeting, August, 1914, and printed in Bulletin: No. 92, August, 1914, pp. 1801 to. 1806. G. C. RIDDELL, East Helena, Mont.-As nearly as I can recall at the present moment, there are only four or five large plants on the continent where the lead on charge is carried in the neighborhood of 40 per cent. These are at Herculaneum, Collinsville, and Federal, Ill.; Trail, B.. C.; and East Helena, Mont. Our object at the latter point is to smelt a maximum amount of Coeur d'Alêne lead sulphides in as compact and self-fluxing a charge as possible, and to this end we are now smelting a mixture that at times carries up to 42 per cent. lead. The monotony of producing the 7,000 tons of bullion shipped each month to. the Omaha and Chicago refineries is relieved somewhat by the fact that the 15,000 tons monthly of Coeur d'Alêne ores that are com-ing to us carry enough zinc to provide the one-half slag used with from 6.5 to 7.5 per cent. zinc clay after day. During the month of March, 1914, three lead furnaces in continous operation, each 136 in. long, averaged 249 tons per furnace clay, exclusive of coke and slag shells, which is smelting at the rate of 5.5 tons per square foot of tuyère area. The

Jan 11, 1914

By H. F. Easter

(San Francisco Meeting, September, 1915) THE lead department of the El Paso Smelting Works at El Paso, Tex., is operated strictly oil a custom basis. The ores treated are drawn from the surrounding territory, comprising New Mexico, Arizona, western Texas, and northern Mexico. Ores received from the last-named section originally amounted to a very large tonnage, but of recent years have dwindled into comparative insignificance so far as this plant is concerned. This has been clue partly to the establishment of a lead-smelting plant at Chihuahua, which is much closer than El Paso to most of the important mines, and partly to the recent revolutionary troubles in Mexico. There are no mines of either lead or copper in the immediate vicinity of El Paso. In general, it may be said that the lead-ore supply of recent years has been uncertain and precarious, with a general tendency toward an excess of silica and a shortage of iron. This latter requirement has been met in large part by the use in El Paso lead furnaces of considerable amounts of roasted heady copper matte from the Chihuahua smeltery and of converter slag from the El Paso converters. These two materials, coupled with complex lead-copper ores from Bisbee, Ariz., have introduced into the lead-smelting operations a most unusual amount of copper, which has had an important bearing upon the smelting practice of the plant. This matter will be discussed later. The ore, loaded in either box cars or gondolas, enters the storage yard on four tracks elevated about 8 ft. above the ground. As all unloading is clone by hand, unloading platforms at the height of the car floor parallel the tracks on each side to afford a runway for wheelbarrows. At frequent intervals these lengthwise platforms are joined together by others running crosswise to facilitate the distribution of the ores evenly over the beds, which are located below and between the tracks. At present much of the bedding space formerly used for lead ores is given over to the copper department, but 20 bins of various sizes are retained for the use of the lead furnaces and the Huntington & Heberlein roasting plant. The largest of these holds about 1,000 tons, while the smallest holds not over

Jan 8, 1915

By Clift N

Lead concentrate from the Isa and Hilton lead-zinc concentrators of Mount lsa Mines Limited is smelted at Mount Isa to produce a lead-silver bullion. This bullion is cast into four tonne blocks and shipped to Britannia Refined Metals Co Ltd, NorthDeet, England and to plants in Asia for refining and marketing. The traditional treatment stages at Mount lsa are sintering, smelting, and drossing and casting, with some of the sinter plant feed being pre-treated through an Isasmelt plant.A commercial scale lsasmelt based lead smelter was commissioned in early 1991.

Jan 1, 1993

THIS paper is not intended to be a detailed description of the lead, smelting plant at Cockle Creek, as this has been covered in previous papers for the Institute in 1918, Proceedings No. 31, by other members of the staff; but the idea is to give some of the practices and conditions peculiar to these works, also to give some experiments carried out and the conclusions arrived at. Unfortunately, owing to the closing down of the smelting and refinery plant at these works, sone of the experiments could not be carried to a more definite and commercial basis, but they are given in the hope that they may be of interest to members, and may perhaps suggest further thought along the lines indicated.ROASTING AND SINTERINGThe greater part of the ore treated at these works came from the Central mine, Broken Hill, but, in addition, a large quantity was purchased from other parts of New South Wales and from Tasmania. This purchased ore was seldom received in the form of a concentrate, but initially in its crude state, and therefore had to be crushed. The crushing was done in a Krupp mill, and the ore then added to the roasting mixture. This addition of crude ore was one of the main...

Jan 1, 1923

By W. Spencer Reid

ALTHOUGH there have been some developments during the last five years which have had far- reaching and important bearing on lead smelting, it cannot be said that any basic principles of pyrometal-lurgy have been discovered. Eighteen or twenty years ago the Dwight & Lloyd sintering machine was intro-duced and literally turned the roasting end of lead smelting upside down. There has been nothing com-parable to the advent of the sintering machine during recent years. Actual blast-furnace practice today is slightly, if any, better than it was five years ago ; although immeas-urably better than it was twenty to thirty years ago. Some tell us that as far as cleanness of slags is con-cerned, it is no better today than in the days of the old Romans. The metallurgist of a generation ago did very good work, considering the equipment he had available. It is true he was working with the cream of the ores, the clean oxides and carbonates and the low-zinc sul-fides. He was troubled very little with high zinc and selected his type of slag according to preference of -some authority such as Eilers, Iles, Raht, Hahn, etc. As these free-smelting ores were depleted the complex ores were encountered, and the metallurgist gradually discovered that he had to forget the old type slags and run a slag according to the percentage of zinc on the charge. I believe it is now universally agreed that SiO2 and CaO must be lowered and FeO raised in a slag as the ZnO increases. The ratio of these variations is practically uniform and can be relied upon over wide fluctuations of the determining element, zinc. These "bastard" slags, as they are sometimes inappropriately designated, are actually in daily use, and the metallurgist of today has been forced to adopt certain standards, as a guide to successful operation. These slags practically refute the old Eilers' theory that all good slags are chemical combinations of SiO2 with FeO and MnO, and CaO and MgO. Eilers' and the other type-slag theories were based upon the assumption that a good slag must con-form to a definite formula, such as 3 (FeO)2 SiO2 + 2 (CaO)2 SiO2 or 2 (FeO)2 SiO2 + 2 (CaO)2 SiO2 which respectively figure 31.3 and 36 per cent SiO2. The SiO2 was supposed to remain constant even with the entrance of impurities such as Zn and A1,0? into the slag. The increasing amount of impurities, espe-cially Zn, soon discredited the theory, for in actual practice the slag failed to run freely.

Jan 1, 1927

By H. Cepin

Production of non-ferrous metals is still principally performed in shaft and flame fired furnaces. Electric furnaces increase metal recovery, reduce environmental burdens and decrease energy consumption compared to conventional processes. Because non-ferrous metals have low melting and boiling points and aggressive slags design of the furnace, energy input, and slag conductivity and composition are very important. Secondary materials are easily handled in electric furnaces. Since additional amounts of lead, zinc and tin will become available from secondary sources in the future, electric furnaces are expected to replace conventional smelting furnaces. The paper describes technical, electrical, and process designs of electric furnaces peculiar to the reduction of non-ferrous metals. Electric and various thermic furnace processes are compared.

Jan 1, 1990

By B. L. Sackett

LEAD smelting has been an important industry in Utah for many years. The first lead smelting was done, over 60 years ago, at the Rollins mine in Beaver County, by burning heaps consisting of alternate layers of wood and high-grade carbonate ore. The lead thus obtained was. molded into bullets. With the development of. the mines, the problem of cheaper handling of the ore became important. The only outlet for this ore was Swansea or the Atlantic Coast but to ship to either cost $150 per ton or more for treatment and handling. From 1864 to 1871, experimenting was done with blast, Scotch hearth, and reverberatory furnaces, with the blast furnace surviving as, the standard plant. The first crude furnaces were circular or hexagonal in shape, and were made of adobe and stone, which quickly burned out. They were small, about 2 1/2 ft. in diameter, and smelted from 3 to 10 tons. in 24 hr. The metal had to be tapped from the bottom of the crucible, necessitating a shut down of the furnace during this process. This pro¬cedure caused salamanders to form around the tap hole when the furnace was started again, which frequently resulted in freezing. The campaign lasted until a tap of bullion was made. The first successful plant of the crude stone type was operated in 1870. From 1870 to 1872, there was a smelter building craze in the state. During that period, about 20 furnaces were built, chiefly near the mines, and their operation was limited and sporadic. The work was then placed in the hands of trained metallurgists, who standardized on the rectangular form of furnace. In 1871, Daggett, at the Winnamuck mine in Bingham, installed water-jackets around the smelting zone of the furnaces. These furnaces were circular; the diameter at the tuyere line was 3 ft. 6 in. and at the charge floor 5 ft. 3 in. The height from tuyere line to charge floor was 14 ft., height of tuyere line above top of crucible was 3 ft. 8 in. Fur-

Jan 8, 1925

By J. M. Rapkoch

In late October 1996, an acid plant at a major U.S. copper smelter was faced with unexpected and rapidly increasing pressure drop across the gas cooling tower in the acid plant, indicating a build-up on the packing. This threatened to halt operations if not resolved. Earlier that month, a smaller vessel in the acid plant was found to be completely plugged with lead sulfate. It was feared that a similar fate awaited the gas cooling tower unless the scale build-up was stopped. Although lead sulfate is present in most copper smelter acid plants, this accumulation was unusually severe. An investigation was launched to find the source of the lead, determine how lead is transported to the gas cooling tower, recommend operating practices to prevent such severe scaling, and seek ways to recycle the lead value in the scale covered polypropylene packing. Late in the investigation it was learned that the lead originated from an improperly executed recycling program.

Jan 1, 2000

By F. Habashi

Lead is an ancient metal. The alchemists related it to the planet Saturn. It was largely obtained by smelting galena which generally contains small quantities of silver. That is why the metallurgy of lead was closely related to that of silver and in some cases the ore was treated only for its silver content. It was also known during the Roman time that lead vapors were toxic. Lead has been produced exclusively by pryrometallurgical methods. Lead refining is a complex process because of the presence of deleterious impurities such as arsenic, antimony, and bismuth. In the nineteenth century lead played an important role as a material of construction in the manufacture of sulfuric acid. In the twentieth century tetraethyl lead was used exclusively as an anti-knock reagent. In recent years lead is mainly used for making batteries.

Jan 1, 2008

By Lorraine B. Burgin

The extensive lead time to develop most Arizona copper deposits commenced with initial production efforts before the turn of the century, when the first attempts were made to recover gold and silver and later copper from the high-grade vein deposits of the territory. Each of these discoveries, prospects, and early operations had its own lead time and life cycle as economic production was attempted. Because prices of the metals fluctuated and the higher grade material was depleted, economics forced operations to close and companies to fail. Renewed interest in the property because of improved conditions, different interpretation of the geologic structure, or new promotional ability frequently resulted in the formation of yet another company to finance the exploration and, hopefully, the development of the property. This cycle of renewed activity and subsequent abandonment was and is common, accounting for many lead times and for the long period of time from the initial location of claims to large-scale production. In order to gain a perspective on the lead-time interval necessary to achieve development of a large-scale operation, the histories of several major Arizona mines were examined, rather than a simple listing of discovery and production dates of many mines to arrive at a statistical average. The Miami, Castle Dome, Copper Cities, San Manuel, and Twin Buttes properties were studied, and as much data as possible obtained on the Pinto Valley, Esperanza, Sierrita, Pima, and Mineral Park-Ithaca Peak properties.

Jan 1, 1974

By H. D. Sharma

INTRODUCTION Uranium mill tailings, by-products from the mining and milling of uranium oxide contain all decay products of uranium-238, uranium-235 and all the Th-232. The ore containing all daughter products of the parents U-238, U-235 and Th-232 is ground to approximately 50% under 200 mesh particle size and after extraction of uranium, the residue, described as tailings, is discharged into natural depressions confined by dams. These deposition sites are referred to as tailings ponds. Tailings ponds are located in two mining districts, Bancroft and Elliot Lake in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Some parts of tailings ponds are dry up to a depth of several meters, whereas other parts have a water table very close to the surface and still others are covered with water. The extent to which the daughters of uranium isotopes are in equilibrium with the parents U-238 and U-235 is dependent on the age of the deposit in which uranium occurs and the extent to which the decay products are removed by geochemical processes. In the mining district of Bancroft, the deposit is known to be approximately 1 billion years old, whereas in Elliot Lake, the deposit is considered to be approximately 2 billion years old. The ratio of radiogenic lead isotopes Pb-206 and Pb-207, can provide some estimates concerning the age of the deposits. If the tailings are not affected by geochemical processes, the tailings would contain all the daughters of the 4n+2 and 4n+3 series in equilibrium concentrations. The equilibrium activities of some members of the 4n+2 series are calculated in Table 1. [ ] The amount of radiogenic stable lead isotopes depends on the age of the ore deposits. If the deposit in each district is of the same age, a definite relationship is expected with respect to the activity of Pb-210 and the radiogenic stable isotopes. Approximately 33 million tons of the tailings have been deposited in the early 1960's, approximately 20 years ago. During this period of storage, the segregation of uranium daughters, like radium, the diffusion of gaseous product, Rn-222, and removal of precursors by geochemical processes, can cause dis-equilibrium. Earlier work concerned with the uptake of Ra-226 and Pb-210 by plants (Kalin and Sharma, 1981), indicated that the concentrations of Pb-210,in samples of the tailings taken, were lower than the expected equilibrium. The diffusion of radon from a variety of matrices has been studied (Tanner, 1964). It has been shown that the diffusion coefficient is dependent on the particle size in which its precursor is present, the moisture content and the surface conditions. The direct measurement of radon concentrations in the environment near the ponds is dependent on the metereological conditions. Kramer, Schroeder and Evans, 1964, have examined the variations in the concentration of radon near the ground level with respect to atmospheric variables, such as changes in barometric pressure, precipitation, wind velocities, thermal atmospheric instability. It is difficult to relate the total release of radon from the ponds to the atmosphere over an extended period. Our measurements of Pb-210 and total lead on tailings samples taken from 16 sites indicate that the ratios of the activity of Pb-210 to the mass of total lead can provide parameters which are helpful in the estimation of the total amount of radon and its decay products diffusing from the tailings ponds. In this paper, we present the results of measurements of activities of Ra-226, Pb-210 and total lead in samples from various ponds situated in both mining districts. The measurements were confined to samples taken at 0-25 cm depth from the surface.

Jan 1, 1981