The Use of Mining Waste Materials for the Treatment of Acid and Alkaline Mine Wastewater

Minerals

Tomasz Bajda¹  Grzegorz Rzepa¹  Lukasz Drewniak²  Jacek Retka² 

[1] Department of Mineralogy, Petrography and Geochemistry, Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, AGH University of Science and Technology, al. Mickiewicza 30, 30‐059 Krakow, Poland;Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Miecznikowa 1, 02‐096 Warsaw, Poland;

关键词: acid mine drainage;    alkaline flotation wastewater;    waste rock;    mining waste material;   

DOI  :  10.3390/min10121061

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The mining of metal ores generates both liquid and solid wastes, which are increasingly important to manage. In this paper, an attempt was made to use waste rocks produced in the mining of zinc and lead to neutralizing acid mine drainage and alkaline flotation wastewater. Waste rock is a quartz-feldspar rock of hydrothermal origin. It is composed of, besides quartz and potassium feldspar (orthoclase), phyllosilicates (chlorite and mica), and sulfides (chiefly pyrite). To determine its physicochemical parameters and their variability, acid mine water and flotation wastewater were monitored for 12 months. Acid mine drainage (AMD) is characterized by a low pH (~3), high zinc concentration (~750 mg·L⁻¹), and high sulfate content (~6800 mg·L⁻¹). On the other hand, the determinations made for flotation wastewater showed, among others, a pH of approximately 12 and ca. 780 mg·L⁻¹ of sulfates. AMD and flotation wastewater neutralization by the waste rock was shown to be possible and efficient. However, in both cases, the final solution contained elevated concentrations of metals and sulfates. Premixing AMD with alkaline flotation wastewater in the first step and then neutralizing the obtained mixture with the waste rock was considered the best solution. The produced solution had a circumneutral pH. However, the obtained solution does not meet the legislative requirements but could be further treated by, for example, passive treatment systems. It is noteworthy that the proposed approach is low cost and does not require any chemical reagents.

【 授权许可】

Unknown