Centuries of mining have left a legacy of metal-contaminated mine wastes across the world's mineralized regions. These wastes often contain highly elevated levels of many hazardous metals in addition to the primary ore metal. Characterizing trends in metal concentrations, metal speciation (the dominant chemical form of the metal), and correlations between metals as a function of particle size can provide insight into the mechanical and chemical processes that distribute metals in the environment and impact their availability to living organisms. A combination of physical size separations, bulk chemical analyses, X-ray spectroscopic methods, and empirical leach tests aids the identification of such trends as well as the pathways that control metal transport from mine impacted sites.