Mineral Weathering and Metal Leaching under Meteoric Conditions in F-(Ba-Pb-Zn) Mining Waste of Hammam Zriba (NE Tunisia).

Mining waste is an obvious source of environmental pollution due to the presence of heavy metals, which can contaminate soils, water resources, sediments, air, and people living nearby. The F-(Ba-Pb-Zn) deposit of Hammam Zriba located in northeast Tunisia, 8 km southeast of Zaghouan was intensively exploited from 1970 to 1992. More than 250,000 m of flotation tailings were produced and stored in the open air in three dumps without any measure of environmental protection.