Welcome to our new PhD students

Our new PhD students have just joined EGG. Petr Fleissig (left) will work on silver isotopes and Martin Lichovník (right) on speciation, extraction, and potential recovery of valuable metals from wastes. Welcome!

Marek Tuhý joined CSIRO

Marek Tuhý became a visiting postdoctoral scientist in the National Bushfire Behaviour Research Laboratory, Land & Water Division, CSIRO. Thanks to his postdoctoral fellowship project from the Czech Science Foundation, he will spend 2 years in Canberra, Australia, working on the experiments simulating the effect of wildfires on remobilization and transformations of metal(loid)s.

Alda Vieira successfully completed PhD

On Tuesday September 19, 2023, Alda M. D. Vieira successfully completed her PhD thesis entitled “Mercury dynamics in soil systems: A comprehensive study on natural and anthropogenic sources using elemental and isotopic analysis”. Congratulations, Alda, and good luck for your future job!
Alda with her supervisor, Dr. Maria Vaňková and referees, Drs. Barbora Doušová and Tomáš Navrátil.

Rafael Baieta completed his PhD

On December 14, 2022, Rafael Baieta successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “A study of the behavior of selected metals in affected environments using isotopic approach” completed under supervision of prof. Martin Mihaljevič. On the photo you find Rafael with the external reviewers Dr. Tomáš Navrátil (left) and Dr. Václav Tejnecký (right). Congratulations, Rafael!

Helena Jelenová and Magdaléna Peřestá defended their PhD

On Thursday 22nd September 2022, Helena Jelenová (née Kindlová) and Magdaléna Peřestá (née Knappová) successfully defended their PhD theses entitled “Arsenic speciation in mining wastes – case studies in systems dominated by ferric sulfo-arsenates” and “Speciation of arsenic under reducing conditions of organic-rich soil”, respectively. Both theses were supervised by Dr. Petr Drahota. On the photos you will see both ladies with their supervisor and reviewers Dr. Michal Filippi (Geological Institute of the CAS), Dr. Ľubomír Jurkovič (Comenius University, Bratislava), Prof. Edgar Hiller (Comenius University, Bratislava) and Dr. Barbora Doušová (University of Chemistry and Technology Prague). It was a successful ARSENIC DAY. Congratulations!

Cobalt recovery from Zambian slags

Cobalt is one of the most important critical metals which could be potentially extracted from the old metallurgical slags in the Zambian Copperbelt. The slags from Luanshya, the oldest mining and smelting site in the Copperbelt, contain up to 5990 ppm Co (median: 2370 ppm). The detailed mineralogical investigation combined with the sulfuric acid leaching simulating hydrometallurgical recovery indicated that up to 67% of Co can be extracted from slag in a short period of time (24 h). However, despite the dramatic increase of Co prices on the global market, its recovery from the Luanshya slags appears to be non-economical due to the high costs of the mechanical and chemical processing of the slag materials. The paper is freely available via open access:

Ettler V., Mihaljevič M., Drahota P., Kříbek B., Nyambe I., Vaněk A., Penížek V., Sracek O., Natherová V. (2022): Cobalt-bearing copper slags from Luanshya (Zambian Copperbelt): Mineralogy, geochemistry, and potential recovery of critical metals. Journal of Geochemical Exploration 237, 106987. (DOI)

Do forest fires alter the Pb isotopic composition of topsoils?

We compared analogous healthy topsoils and ones burned by fires of different temperatures for their elemental and isotopic Pb content. The fires only affected the top 5 cm of the soil. We found that soils affected by low-temperature fires had increased Pb compared to healthy soils. The accumulation of Pb was not observed in the soils exposed to higher temperatures. The same results were found in ash. Lead isotopic ratios were affected by the fires. These increased in soils affected by higher temperatures but didn’t change with the low temperatures. We proposed that the temperature dependence is due to anthropogenic Pb (206Pb/207Pb < 1.16) volatilizing at lower temperatures than geogenic Pb (206Pb/207Pb > 1.19). This work suggests that it may be possible to determine the temperature of a forest fire from the Pb isotopic signatures of the burned materials.

Baieta R., Vieira A.M.D, Vaňková M., Mihaljevič M. (2022): Effects of forest fires on soil lead elemental contents and isotopic ratios. Geoderma 414, 115760. (DOI)

Marek Tuhý successfully defended his PhD thesis

On Thursday 30th September 2021, Marek Tuhý successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Wildfires in polluted areas: mineralogical transformations and remobilization of metal(loid)s“. The thesis was supervised by prof. Vojtěch Ettler and reviewed by Dr. Isabel Campos (University of Aveiro, Portugal) and Dr. Tomáš Navrátil (Institute of Geology, CAS). Congratulations!

New book on Metallurgical Slags

A new book entitled Metallurgical Slags: Environmental Geochemistry and Resource Potential edited by Nadine M. Piatak (USGS) and Vojtěch Ettler has been published by the prestigious publishing house, the Royal Society of Chemistry (link). Vojtech Ettler (co-) authored four of nine chapters in the book: Introduction: Metallurgical Slags – Environmental Liability or Valuable Resource? (DOI), Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Slags (DOI), Slag Leaching Properties and Release of Contaminants (DOI), and Environmental Impact of Slag Particulates (DOI).

Metal(loid)s remobilization from contaminated soils during experimental wildfires

The temperature-dependent releases of metal(loid)s (As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn) from biomass-rich savanna soils collected near a Cu smelter in Namibia have been studied under simulated wildfire conditions. For this purpose, new wildfire-simulating setups were introduced. Laboratory single-step combustion experiments (250–850 °C) and experiments with a continuous temperature increase and online ICP-OES detection (25–750 °C) were coupled with mineralogical investigations of the soils, ashes, and aerosols. The results indicate that metals are dominantly concentrating in the ash residue, and part of As is remobilized depending on temperature. Therefore, the active and abandoned mining and smelting sites, especially those highly enriched in As, should be protected against wildfires, which can be responsible for substantial As re-emissions.

Tuhý M., Ettler V., Rohovec J., Matoušková Š., Mihaljevič M., Kříbek B., Mapani B. (2021): Metal(loid)s remobilization and mineralogical transformations in smelter-polluted savanna soils under simulated wildfire conditions. Journal of Environmental Management 293, 112899. (DOI)