The Litoclean Mexico team has performed the characterization of a soil impacted by hydrocarbons in the facilities of an open pit mine located in the north of the country.
The material was located on soil stockpiled inside a cell that was covered by a plastic linner to prevent the dispersion of volatile organic compounds. With the collaboration of mine personnel, Litoclean took soil samples at different depths to determine whether or not the material showed signs of hydrocarbon contamination.
Once the samples were collected, they were sent for analysis to a laboratory specialized in environmental studies accredited by the Entidad Mexicana de Acreditación (EMA) and approved by the Procuraduría Federal y Protección al Ambiente (PROFEPA).
Once the study was completed, Litoclean submitted a technical report that combines the interactions of the environment with the stockpiled soil, as well as the results of the analytical tests in accordance with Mexican Official Standard NOM-138-SEMARNAT/SSA1-2012.
This project had the added difficulty that the cell where the soil to be characterized was no longer uniform and that the linner was quite damaged. In addition, the presence of numerous rocks made hand drilling and sampling difficult.
The knowledge and experience of the Litoclean Mexico team were a guarantee to solve the difficulties in a job that represents a big step forward for the company due to the complexity of doing studies of these characteristics in Mexican mines. In spite of the handicaps in the logistics of the transfer and entry, the team successfully completed the study thanks to its good organization and execution of the project and to the client’s willingness to make a good waste management.
