Kelmis and Plombières (Belgium) excursion

On 19 July, prof. Henk Schat, my colleague dr. Ahmad Mohtadi and me went to Kelmis and Plombières in Belgium for collecting some Zn-Cd-Pb-Tl smelter soil for my and Ahmad's plants breeding. we will check if our supposed tollerant plants are really able to grow in a polluted soil in a controlled environment. By the way I drove!

Our department's Opel Astra and Ahmad

Kelmis (in French, La Calamine; 10,396 inhabitants on 1 January 2006) and Plombières (German: Bleyberg or Bleiberg, Dutch: Blieberg;  9,672 inhabitants on 1 January 2006) are located near the "three-land point" where the borders of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands merge. The two cities are located in the German-speaking Comunity and in Plombières is present also a smal Dutch Comunity. The territory around the Vieille Montagne zinc mine in Kelmis was semi-independent during 1816–1919 as Neutral Moresnet.

Municipal flag of Kelmis

Plombières church

The three-land point

The name Kelmis comes from Romanic Cal(a)mis, meaning "a place with calaminarious stones", which was Germanized into Kälminis in the VIIIth century. From the Middle Ages until the beginning of the 20th century, extensive Zn–Pb mining and smelting was carried out in Kelmis and Plombières. Besides the important amount of waste that is stored in huge mine tailings, overbank sediments along the nearby Geul rive are severely contaminated with Zn, Pb and Cd. The considerable actual and potential mobility of Zn, Pb and Cd indicates that the mine pond tailing sediments and the overbank sediments downstream from the mine pond tailing represent a considerable threat for the environment. Besides the chemical remobilisation of metals from the sediments, the erosion of overbank sediments and the reworking of riverbed sediments act as a secondary source of pollution.

Geographical setting of the Geul river (tributary of the Meuse) and
major mines. Mining already took place in the Middle Ages, and
reached its apogee during the 19th century. Smelters were located
nearby the mines.

In Kelmis, in the depths of the metalliferous deposits are found sulphurous ores such as blende (ZnS), galenite (PbS) and pyrites (FeS₂). Closer to the surface, in the so-called "iron hat", ore oxidization by air and water gives calamine, a mixture of zinc carbonates and silicates; cerusite, a lead carbonate; and limonite, an iron hydroxide. By a chemically point of view Calamine is made by two distinct minerals: zinc carbonate ZnCO₃ and zinc silicate Zn₄Si₂O₇(OH)₂ * H₂O. The International Mineralogical Association defined Calamine as the silicate of zinc and Smithsonite as zinc carbonate. However, in practice, you may find that calamine refers to either the silicate, the carbonate or both.

In the following photos you can see the entrance to the Kelmis minings. After parking y car in the near road you need first to pass through farm land either by bike or walking:

Prof Henk and dr. Ahmad on the way to the Mining site

Funny trio

 

The funny gate. It should avide the entrance with motorcycles.

 

Hunting zone... help... I hope it is not now!

This pass was used by a railroad for the minerals transportation from the minings. Therefore this pass is full of heavy metal and on the border there are growing many metallicolous plants suche as Thlaspi caerulescens. On the other hand, the rest of the land is not polluted and there is no evidence of metallophytes.

Mineral

 A small part of the metallicolous flora on the borders of the pass:

Thlaspi caerulescens

Silene vulgaris

 

 

 

The same pass continuing in the wood. The left part is less poluted while the right part more because of leaching.

 

 

The wood is a really nursery of Thlaspi caerulescens

In the non tolerant plant it is evident the chlorosis

 

One of the mines

 

 

A proble water exit form the mines

 

Deposit on the way to the mines. From this sait start the railroad for the mineral transportation. This plateau is full of metallophytes species and there is no evidence of non tolerant plants

Viola calaminaria

On the smelters and on the border of the trasnportaion road for minerals during mining activities develop a large metallicolous plant comunity thanks to full toxic metalliferous soils. An example is Viola Calaminaria which is a typical flower growing on calamine soils. However on the right photo it is obviously a hybrid because it's almost lose its typical violet color to the yellow.

Viola calaminaria

hybrid Viola calaminaria

It was a ver nice and instructive walk. After visiting La Calamine mining deposits we went to Plombières for collecting the heavy metal soil. There I found another very interesting species growing on a obviously contaminated soil probably rich in Fe: Plantago lanceolata! This plant is under study in the Multifarm project as a potentially Cu phytoztabilization or hyperaccumulator species. In fact some authors suggest this plant as a promising plant as a heavy metal hyperaccumulator.

The Plombières (Bleyberg) Mine in the 1850's.

Dumps of the former Plombières (Bleyberg) Mine and  Plombières (Bleyberg) smelter, nowadays a nature reserve. We collect exactlz that black soil for our analzsis

Plantago lanceolata on the entrance of the Plombières (Bleyberg) dumps and former smelters

At the end I upload also a nice video taken in the Kelmis wood:

Rerences

• Cappuyns et al. (2006) Environmental impact of the former Pb–Zn mining and smelting in East Belgium. J. of Geochemical Exploration 88:6–9;
• Van Damme et al. (2010) Zinc speciation in mining and smelter contaminated overbank sediments by EXAFS spectroscopy. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 74: 3707–3720;
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geul;
• http://flagspot.net/flags/be-wlgkm.html;
• http://www.chemistrydaily.com/chemistry/Calamine;
• http://www.chemistrydaily.com/chemistry/Smithsonite.