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Comparison of static and mineralogical ARD prediction methods in the Nordic environment

Acid rock drainage (ARD) is a major problem related to the management of mining wastes, especially concerning deposits containing sulphide minerals. Commonly used tests for ARD prediction include acid–base accounting (ABA) tests and the net acid generation (NAG) test. Since drainage quality largely...

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Autores principales: Karlsson, Teemu, Räisänen, Marja Liisa, Lehtonen, Marja, Alakangas, Lena
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6244958/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30426238
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-018-7096-2
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author Karlsson, Teemu
Räisänen, Marja Liisa
Lehtonen, Marja
Alakangas, Lena
author_facet Karlsson, Teemu
Räisänen, Marja Liisa
Lehtonen, Marja
Alakangas, Lena
author_sort Karlsson, Teemu
collection PubMed
description Acid rock drainage (ARD) is a major problem related to the management of mining wastes, especially concerning deposits containing sulphide minerals. Commonly used tests for ARD prediction include acid–base accounting (ABA) tests and the net acid generation (NAG) test. Since drainage quality largely depends on the ratio and quality of acid-producing and neutralising minerals, mineralogical calculations could also be used for ARD prediction. In this study, several Finnish waste rock sites were investigated and the performance of different static ARD test methods was evaluated and compared. At the target mine sites, pyrrhotite was the main mineral contributing to acid production (AP). Silicate minerals were the main contributors to the neutralisation potential (NP) at 60% of the investigated mine sites. Since silicate minerals appear to have a significant role in ARD generation at Finnish mine waste sites, the behaviour of these minerals should be more thoroughly investigated, especially in relation to the acid produced by pyrrhotite oxidation. In general, the NP of silicate minerals appears to be underestimated by laboratory measurements. For example, in the NAG test, the slower-reacting NP-contributing minerals might require a longer time to react than is specified in the currently used method. The results suggest that ARD prediction based on SEM mineralogical calculations is at least as accurate as the commonly used static laboratory methods.
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spelling pubmed-62449582018-12-04 Comparison of static and mineralogical ARD prediction methods in the Nordic environment Karlsson, Teemu Räisänen, Marja Liisa Lehtonen, Marja Alakangas, Lena Environ Monit Assess Article Acid rock drainage (ARD) is a major problem related to the management of mining wastes, especially concerning deposits containing sulphide minerals. Commonly used tests for ARD prediction include acid–base accounting (ABA) tests and the net acid generation (NAG) test. Since drainage quality largely depends on the ratio and quality of acid-producing and neutralising minerals, mineralogical calculations could also be used for ARD prediction. In this study, several Finnish waste rock sites were investigated and the performance of different static ARD test methods was evaluated and compared. At the target mine sites, pyrrhotite was the main mineral contributing to acid production (AP). Silicate minerals were the main contributors to the neutralisation potential (NP) at 60% of the investigated mine sites. Since silicate minerals appear to have a significant role in ARD generation at Finnish mine waste sites, the behaviour of these minerals should be more thoroughly investigated, especially in relation to the acid produced by pyrrhotite oxidation. In general, the NP of silicate minerals appears to be underestimated by laboratory measurements. For example, in the NAG test, the slower-reacting NP-contributing minerals might require a longer time to react than is specified in the currently used method. The results suggest that ARD prediction based on SEM mineralogical calculations is at least as accurate as the commonly used static laboratory methods. Springer International Publishing 2018-11-13 2018 /pmc/articles/PMC6244958/ /pubmed/30426238 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-018-7096-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Article
Karlsson, Teemu
Räisänen, Marja Liisa
Lehtonen, Marja
Alakangas, Lena
Comparison of static and mineralogical ARD prediction methods in the Nordic environment
title Comparison of static and mineralogical ARD prediction methods in the Nordic environment
title_full Comparison of static and mineralogical ARD prediction methods in the Nordic environment
title_fullStr Comparison of static and mineralogical ARD prediction methods in the Nordic environment
title_full_unstemmed Comparison of static and mineralogical ARD prediction methods in the Nordic environment
title_short Comparison of static and mineralogical ARD prediction methods in the Nordic environment
title_sort comparison of static and mineralogical ard prediction methods in the nordic environment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6244958/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30426238
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-018-7096-2
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