The beach placer iron deposit of Portman Bay, Murcia, SE Spain: the result of 33 years of tailings disposal (1957–1990) to the Mediterranean seaside

Between 1957 and 1990, the Peñarroya Mining and Metallurgical Company (SMMPE) disposed about 60 million tonnes of tailings materials directly to the Mediterranean Sea. A substantial part of it (12.5 Mt) was dragged back by the sea currents progressively infilling the Portman Bay (Murcia, SE Spain), thus making the shoreline advance between 500 and 600 m seaward. The Roberto froth flotation plant processed mineral from manto-type deposits belonging to the Sierra de Cartagena-La Unión lead-zinc district. One of the mineral assemblages present in these deposits comprises greenalite, magnetite, sulfides, carbonates, and silica. Despite that magnetite recovery was undertaken by SMMPE between 1959 and 1967, we estimate that magnetite contained in the tailings hosts a substantial resource that could be as large as 2.3 Mt of iron ore. The ore contains magnetite ± hematite ± siderite. Tidal waves and sea currents led to gravimetric classification of the tailings material, with concentration of the dense iron oxides in the sandy fractions, eventually forming a coastal placer iron deposit. A major problem for magnetic separation is the intimate intergrowth between magnetite, hematite, and siderite. Besides, the sands contain large concentrations of Pb (0.27 %), Zn (0.72 %), and As (559 ppm).