Characterization of waste rock associated with acid drainage at the Penn Mine, California, by ground-based visible to short-wave infrared reflectance spectroscopy assisted by digital mapping

Prior to remediation at the abandoned Cu-Zn Penn Mine in the Foothills massive sulfide belt of the Sierra Nevada, CA, acid mine drainage (AMD) was created, in part, by the subaerial oxidation of sulfides exposed on several waste piles. To support remediation efforts, a mineralogical study of the waste piles was undertaken by acquiring reflectance spectra (measured in the visible to short-wave infrared range of light (0.35-2.5 ??m) using a portable, digitally integrated pen tablet PC mapping system with differential global positioning system and laser rangefinder support. Analysis of the spectral data made use of a continuum removal and band-shape comparison method, and of reference spectral libraries of end-member minerals and mineral mixtures. Identification of secondary Fe-bearing minerals focused on band matching in the region between 0.43 and 1.3 ??m. Identification of sheet and other silicates was based on band-shape analysis in the region between 1.9 and 2.4 ??m. Analysis of reflectance spectra of characterized rock samples from the mine helped in gauging the spectral response to particle size and mixtures. The resulting mineral maps delineated a pattern of accumulation of secondary Fe minerals, wherein centers of copiapite and jarosite that formed at low pH (