Phosphate-Induced Metal Stabilization (PIMS) using Apatite II stabilizes a wide range of metals, especially Pb, Cd, Zn, U and Pu, in situ or ex situ, by chemically binding them into new stable phosphate phases and other low-solubility phases that are stable over geologic time (U.S. patent #6,217,775).The concept resulted from paleochemical oceanographic and chemostratigraphic studies, in the 1970s and 1980s, of phosphatic sedimentary materials from the Cambrian period (570 million years ago) to the Present. These studies showed that apatite hard parts of marine animals, and even abiotic phosphorite deposits, developed identical trace metal signatures of the seawater with which they were in contact, but with concentrations enriched by six or seven orders of magnitude. The chemical reactions were relatively fast and the chemical signatures were retained over geologic time, even in the face of multiple destructive events such as burial, lithification, heating, and weathering.
Original URL: http://www.envirofacs.org/Pre-prints/Vol%2042%20No%202/General/Papers%20122-124/p%20124.pdf
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