Contaminated Land

In the assessment of soils, sediments and man made structures contaminated as a result of past mining and other industrial activity, an understanding of the environmental mineralogy can be critical in the evaluation of the nature of the contamination, the risk posed by the contamination and potential remediation strategies. Key areas of expertise offered by Helford Geoscience LLP include:

• Characterisation of metal and arsenic contaminated sites based
   on both mineralogy and geochemistry
• Characterisation of contamination around historic mining sites
• Identification and quantification of secondary minerals precipitated
   as a result of alteration of primary mine waste
• Characterisation and provenance of atmospheric dusts
• Geochemistry and mineralogy of estuarine sediments


Our expertise in the mineralogy of contaminated land is supported by access to transmitted and reflected light microscopy, digital photo-micrograph facility, cold cathodo-luminescence, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, ICP-MS, wavelength dispersive electron microprobe, low vacuum scanning electron microscopy with EDS and image analysis, and automated SEM-EDS mineral analysis using QEMSCAN® technology.

Recent scientific publications
Pirrie, D., Power, M.R., Rollinson, G., Camm, G.S., Hughes, S.H., Butcher, A.R. & Hughes, P. 2003. The spatial distribution and source of arsenic, copper, tin and zinc within the surface sediments of the Fal Estuary, Cornwall, UK. Sedimentology, 50, 579-595.

Camm, G.S., Butcher, A.R., Pirrie, D., Hughes, P.K. & Glass, H.J. 2003. Secondary mineral phases associated with a historic arsenic calciner identified using automated scanning electron microscopy; a pilot study from Cornwall, U.K. Minerals Engineering, 16, 1269-1277.

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