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Minerals
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Acid Mine Drainage Recovery
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Acid Mine Drainage Recovery

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Mineralogy and Biogeochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2019) | Viewed by 26000

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Sara Couperthwaite

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane City, QLD 4000, Australia
Interests: acid mine drainage; mine waste characterisation; environmental monitoring; mine waste conversion; management and remediation; water treatment technologies; resource recovery

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global economies have been built on mining natural resources. The major issue of mining is the amount of waste rock and tailings produced that have the potential to form acid mine drainage water upon exposure to air and water; forming an acidic wastewater with a variety of heavy metals (site specific). Minimising the environment risk and implications of mining and associated wastewaters during and after closure is of high importance due to the severity and extent of effects that contaminated lands and waterways have on ecosystems. Common active treatment technologies include neutralisation/precipitation, membrane separation, bioremediation, electrochemistry and selective sorbents, however no one technology can universally treat acid mine drainage water. Treatment processes are typically expensive and not economically sustainable, therefore the recovery of commodities from acid mine drainage waters has the potential to off-set the overall cost of treatment, which in turn will encourage mining companies to be more diligent in minimising their environmental impact. This Special Issue aims to enhance the knowledge of treatment options for acid mine drainage water, with a focus on resource recovery and upscaling.

The first round submission deadline is 31 October 2018.

Dr. Sara Couperthwaite
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • acid mine drainage water
  • water treatment technologies
  • resource recovery
  • mine wastewater characterisation
  • management and remediation
  • sustainable mining
  • abandoned mine sites

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 8555 KiB  
Article
Coprecipitation of Co2+, Ni2+ and Zn2+ with Mn(III/IV) Oxides Formed in Metal-Rich Mine Waters
by Javier Sánchez-España and Iñaki Yusta
Minerals 2019, 9(4), 226; https://doi.org/10.3390/min9040226 - 10 Apr 2019
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4384
Abstract
Manganese oxides are widespread in soils and natural waters, and their capacity to adsorb different trace metals such as Co, Ni, or Zn is well known. In this study, we aimed to compare the extent of trace metal coprecipitation in different Mn oxides [...] Read more.
Manganese oxides are widespread in soils and natural waters, and their capacity to adsorb different trace metals such as Co, Ni, or Zn is well known. In this study, we aimed to compare the extent of trace metal coprecipitation in different Mn oxides formed during Mn(II) oxidation in highly concentrated, metal-rich mine waters. For this purpose, mine water samples collected from the deepest part of several acidic pit lakes in Spain (pH 2.7–4.2), with very high concentration of manganese (358–892 mg/L Mn) and trace metals (e.g., 795–10,394 µg/L Ni, 678–11,081 µg/L Co, 259–624 mg/L Zn), were neutralized to pH 8.0 in the laboratory and later used for Mn(II) oxidation experiments. These waters were subsequently allowed to oxidize at room temperature and pH = 8.5–9.0 over several weeks until Mn(II) was totally oxidized and a dense layer of manganese precipitates had been formed. These solids were characterized by different techniques for investigating the mineral phases formed and the amount of coprecipitated trace metals. All Mn oxides were fine-grained and poorly crystalline. Evidence from X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled to Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM–EDX) suggests the formation of different manganese oxides with varying oxidation state ranging from Mn(III) (e.g., manganite) and Mn(III/IV) (e.g., birnessite, todorokite) to Mn(IV) (e.g., asbolane). Whole-precipitate analyses by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES), and/or Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS), provided important concentrations of trace metals in birnessite (e.g., up to 1424 ppm Co, 814 ppm Ni, and 2713 ppm Zn), while Co and Ni concentrations at weight percent units were detected in asbolane by SEM-EDX. This trace metal retention capacity is lower than that observed in natural Mn oxides (e.g., birnessite) formed in the water column in a circum-neutral pit lake (pH 7.0–8.0), or in desautelsite obtained in previous neutralization experiments (pH 9.0–10.0). However, given the very high amount of Mn sorbent material formed in the solutions (2.8–4.6 g/L Mn oxide), the formation of these Mn(III/IV) oxides invariably led to the virtually total removal of Co, Ni, and Zn from the aqueous phase. We evaluate these data in the context of mine water pollution treatment and recovery of critical metals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acid Mine Drainage Recovery)
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23 pages, 5016 KiB  
Article
An Experimental Study for the Remediation of Industrial Waste Water Using a Combination of Low Cost Mineral Raw Materials
by Petros Petrounias, Aikaterini Rogkala, Panagiota P. Giannakopoulou, Basilios Tsikouras, Paraskevi Lampropoulou, Stavros Kalaitzidis, Konstantin Hatzipanagiotou, Nicolaos Lambrakis and Marina A. Christopoulou
Minerals 2019, 9(4), 207; https://doi.org/10.3390/min9040207 - 30 Mar 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4912
Abstract
This paper investigates an alternative use of sterile aggregate materials which may arise from various construction applications in conjunction with other low-cost mineral raw materials to remediate the acid mine drainage phenomenon. This study is based on the combination of unprocessed mineral raw [...] Read more.
This paper investigates an alternative use of sterile aggregate materials which may arise from various construction applications in conjunction with other low-cost mineral raw materials to remediate the acid mine drainage phenomenon. This study is based on the combination of unprocessed mineral raw materials, as well as on the basic concept of the cyclic economy where the conversion of a waste into a raw material for another application can be achieved. In this study, in order to examine the remediation, in lab scale, of the drainage waste water of Agios Philippos mine, an experimental electrically continuous flow-driven forced device was constructed, enriching the research gap relative to this type of remediation approach. Through this experimental device, the use of certain mixes of mineral raw materials (serpentinite, andesite, magnesite, peat, and biochar) was studied. Our results focus on the impact of the studied mineral raw materials and especially on their synergy on the water purification potential under continuous water flow operation. Using the new 7-day experimental electrically continuous flow-driven forced device with certain mixes of mineral raw materials, the increase of pH values from 3.00 to 6.82 was achieved. Moreover, with use of the experimental device, the removal of toxic load was achieved, and more specifically the concentration of Fe was decreased from 6149 to 1300 ppb, Cu from 8847 to 35 ppb, and Zn from 285,458 to 50,000 ppb. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acid Mine Drainage Recovery)
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14 pages, 1840 KiB  
Article
Characterization of Mine Waste and Acid Mine Drainage Prediction by Simple Testing Methods in Terms of the Effects of Sulfate-Sulfur and Carbonate Minerals
by Shinji Matsumoto, Hirotaka Ishimatsu, Hideki Shimada, Takashi Sasaoka and Ginting Jalu Kusuma
Minerals 2018, 8(9), 403; https://doi.org/10.3390/min8090403 - 13 Sep 2018
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6568
Abstract
Characterization of mine waste rocks and prediction of acid mine drainage (AMD) play an important role in preventing AMD. Although high-tech analytical methods have been highlighted for mineral characterization and quantification, simple testing methods are still practical ways to perform in a field [...] Read more.
Characterization of mine waste rocks and prediction of acid mine drainage (AMD) play an important role in preventing AMD. Although high-tech analytical methods have been highlighted for mineral characterization and quantification, simple testing methods are still practical ways to perform in a field laboratory in mines. Thus, this study applied some simple testing methods to the characterization of mine wastes and AMD prediction in addition to a leaching test and the sequential extraction test with HCl, HF, and HNO3, which have not been applied for these purposes, focusing on the form of sulfur and the neutralization effects of carbonates. The results of the Acid Buffering Characteristic Curve test supported the changing trend of the pH attributing carbonates only during the first 10 leaching cycles in the leaching test. The change in the Net Acid Generating (NAG) pH in the sequential NAG test reflected the solubility of sulfur in the rocks, providing information on the form of sulfur in the rocks and the acid-producing potential over time. Consequently, the sequential NAG test and sequential extraction with the acids in combination with the current standards tests (Acid Base Accounting and NAG tests) provided important information for preventing AMD. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acid Mine Drainage Recovery)
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14 pages, 1370 KiB  
Article
Metal Removal from Acid Waters by an Endemic Microalga from the Atacama Desert for Water Recovery
by Marcela Martínez, Yanett Leyton, Luis A. Cisternas and Carlos Riquelme
Minerals 2018, 8(9), 378; https://doi.org/10.3390/min8090378 - 31 Aug 2018
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3473
Abstract
The environmental problems generated by waste from the mining industry in the mineral extraction for business purposes are known worldwide. The aim of this work is to evaluate the microalga Muriellopsis sp. as a potential remover of metallic ions such as copper (Cu [...] Read more.
The environmental problems generated by waste from the mining industry in the mineral extraction for business purposes are known worldwide. The aim of this work is to evaluate the microalga Muriellopsis sp. as a potential remover of metallic ions such as copper (Cu2+), zinc (Zn2+) and iron (Fe2+), pollutants of acid mine drainage (AMD) type waters. For this, the removal of these ions was verified in artificial acid waters with high concentrations of the ions under examination. Furthermore, the removal was evaluated in waters obtained from areas contaminated by mining waste. The results showed that Muriellopsis sp. removed metals in waters with high concentrations after 4–12 h and showed tolerance to pH between 3 and 5. These results allow proposing this species as a potential bioremediator for areas contaminated by mining activity. In this work, some potential alternatives for application in damaged areas are proposed as a decontamination plan and future prevention. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acid Mine Drainage Recovery)
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9 pages, 2879 KiB  
Article
Synthesis of Copper Sulfide Nanoparticles Using Biogenic H2S Produced by a Low-pH Sulfidogenic Bioreactor
by Camila Colipai, Gordon Southam, Patricio Oyarzún, Daniella González, Víctor Díaz, Braulio Contreras and Ivan Nancucheo
Minerals 2018, 8(2), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/min8020035 - 23 Jan 2018
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 6081
Abstract
The application of acidophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) for the treatment of acidic mine water has been recently developed to integrate mine water remediation and selective biomineralization. The use of biogenic hydrogen sulfide (H2S) produced from the dissimilatory reduction of sulfate to [...] Read more.
The application of acidophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) for the treatment of acidic mine water has been recently developed to integrate mine water remediation and selective biomineralization. The use of biogenic hydrogen sulfide (H2S) produced from the dissimilatory reduction of sulfate to fabricate valuable products such as metallic sulfide nanoparticles has potential applications in green chemistry. Here we report on the operation of a low-pH sulfidogenic bioreactor, inoculated with an anaerobic sediment obtained from an acid river in northern Chile, to recover copper via the production of copper sulfide nanoparticles using biogenic H2S. The laboratory-scale system was operated as a continuous flow mode for up to 100 days and the bioreactor pH was maintained by the automatic addition of a pH 2.2 influent liquor to compensate for protons consumed by biosulfidogenesis. The “clean” copper sulfide nanoparticles, produced in a two-step process using bacterially generated sulfide, were examined using transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, energy dispersive (X-ray) spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The results demonstrated a uniform nanoparticle size distribution with an average diameter of less than 50 nm. Overall, we demonstrated the production of biogenic H2S using a system designed for the treatment of acid mine water that holds potential for large-scale abiotic synthesis of copper sulfide nanoparticles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acid Mine Drainage Recovery)
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