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Unexpected Non-acid Drainage from Sulfidic Rock Waste

Most rock extraction sites, including mine sites and building construction sites, require a plan to assess, and mitigate if present, the risk of acid mine drainage (AMD). AMD is typically the major environmental concern where sulfide minerals are present in the excavated material and AMD prediction...

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Autores principales: Gerson, Andrea R., Rolley, Peter J., Davis, Catherine, Feig, Sandrin T., Doyle, Stephen, Smart, Roger St. C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6416257/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30867478
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40357-4
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author Gerson, Andrea R.
Rolley, Peter J.
Davis, Catherine
Feig, Sandrin T.
Doyle, Stephen
Smart, Roger St. C.
author_facet Gerson, Andrea R.
Rolley, Peter J.
Davis, Catherine
Feig, Sandrin T.
Doyle, Stephen
Smart, Roger St. C.
author_sort Gerson, Andrea R.
collection PubMed
description Most rock extraction sites, including mine sites and building construction sites, require a plan to assess, and mitigate if present, the risk of acid mine drainage (AMD). AMD is typically the major environmental concern where sulfide minerals are present in the excavated material and AMD prediction and remediation is based on internationally-accepted acid-base accounting (ABA) tests of representative field samples. This paper demonstrates that standardized ABA tests may not always be provide the correct AMD classification for commonly occurring waste rocks containing low-pyrite and -carbonate due to mineralogic assumptions inherent in their design. The application of these standard ABA tests at a copper mine site in South Australia resulted in the classification of a portion of its waste material as potentially acid forming in apparent contradiction to long term field measurements. Full definition of the sulfide and silicate minerals enabled re-evaluation of the weathering reactions occurring. The overall rate of neutralisation due to silicate dissolution was found to always exceed the rate of acid generation, in agreement with field observations. Consequently, the waste rock was redefined as non-acid forming. The methods developed represent a significant advance in AMD prediction and more strategic, cost-effective environmental planning, with potential for reclassification of wastes with similar characteristics.
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spelling pubmed-64162572019-03-15 Unexpected Non-acid Drainage from Sulfidic Rock Waste Gerson, Andrea R. Rolley, Peter J. Davis, Catherine Feig, Sandrin T. Doyle, Stephen Smart, Roger St. C. Sci Rep Article Most rock extraction sites, including mine sites and building construction sites, require a plan to assess, and mitigate if present, the risk of acid mine drainage (AMD). AMD is typically the major environmental concern where sulfide minerals are present in the excavated material and AMD prediction and remediation is based on internationally-accepted acid-base accounting (ABA) tests of representative field samples. This paper demonstrates that standardized ABA tests may not always be provide the correct AMD classification for commonly occurring waste rocks containing low-pyrite and -carbonate due to mineralogic assumptions inherent in their design. The application of these standard ABA tests at a copper mine site in South Australia resulted in the classification of a portion of its waste material as potentially acid forming in apparent contradiction to long term field measurements. Full definition of the sulfide and silicate minerals enabled re-evaluation of the weathering reactions occurring. The overall rate of neutralisation due to silicate dissolution was found to always exceed the rate of acid generation, in agreement with field observations. Consequently, the waste rock was redefined as non-acid forming. The methods developed represent a significant advance in AMD prediction and more strategic, cost-effective environmental planning, with potential for reclassification of wastes with similar characteristics. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-03-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6416257/ /pubmed/30867478 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40357-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as 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. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Gerson, Andrea R.
Rolley, Peter J.
Davis, Catherine
Feig, Sandrin T.
Doyle, Stephen
Smart, Roger St. C.
Unexpected Non-acid Drainage from Sulfidic Rock Waste
title Unexpected Non-acid Drainage from Sulfidic Rock Waste
title_full Unexpected Non-acid Drainage from Sulfidic Rock Waste
title_fullStr Unexpected Non-acid Drainage from Sulfidic Rock Waste
title_full_unstemmed Unexpected Non-acid Drainage from Sulfidic Rock Waste
title_short Unexpected Non-acid Drainage from Sulfidic Rock Waste
title_sort unexpected non-acid drainage from sulfidic rock waste
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6416257/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30867478
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40357-4
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