Giovanni De Giuduci, Dpto. di Scienze della Terra, Universitat de Gagliari, Serden
Sala d'Actes de l'Insitut de Ciencies de la Terra "Jaume Almera", 12h

Metal sulphide minerals are central to many environmental processes such as acid mine drainage, heavy metal pollution, and so on. This is the case for dismantled mine in the South of Sardinia, were extreme water pollution in heavy metal affect a significantly wide area.
As the matter exchange between minerals and water takes place at the interface between mineral and water, the focus will be on the microscopic processes at the dissolving metal sulphide surfaces. In particular, a review of the investigation on galena surface oxidative dissolution will be presented. The topics of that review are 1) interface evolution during dissolution process, 2) surface interaction with organic anions and 3) surface catalysis, and 4) galena dissolution kinetics. In addition, arsenopyrite dissolution kinetics and sphalerite dissolution kinetics will be shortly introduced.
Finally, the extreme concentration of heavy metals in waters is sometimes abated in natural conditions (at the Ingurtosu valley) by natural processes such as biomineralization. This natural could allow one to develop a soft bioremediation technique. Thus, an in vitro reproducibility investigation on hydrozincite biologically mediated precipitation was undertaken.