Copper Concentrate and Gravel Beds

Mining accidents can pollute gravel bed rivers with fine, metal materials, in particular with copper concentrate. This research shows the experimental advances on the spill of copper concentrate in gravel beds, with two approaches; first, in a flume with a bed and second, in a sediment column with surface flow and subsurface flow. Particle Image Velocimetry was applied for the measurement of the flow velocity before and after the spill, finding a maximum decrease of 9% in the bed shear stress. On the other hand, considering both facilities, the thresholds to characterize unimpeded static percolation and bridging, as types of percolation, were specified.