PROMT: Philippines Remediation of Mine Tailings

我们已经组建了一个由菲律宾和英国跨学科研究人员和工业合作伙伴组成的团队，以建立一个创新的研究计划，以测试可持续的尾矿管理、补救和恢复。我们的目标是生产用水量更少、稳定性更高的尾矿，并展示如何对尾矿进行实时监控和自适应管理；并使现代和遗留尾矿的处理能够回收更多的金属，同时对其进行净化，鼓励相关生态系统服务的恢复、长期稳定和再利用。这项综合研究的潜在结果、影响和好处将是减少尾矿对社区和环境的影响，更遵守国际标准，改善矿业公司的社会经营许可证，减少遗留场地的长期负债和风险，以及通过二次提取额外金属和土地再利用获得潜在的收入来源。世界正在转向低碳经济，这需要更多数量和种类的采矿金属。菲律宾是世界上第五大矿产资源丰富的国家，因此将从这种不断增长的需求中受益。然而，地雷会对环境和周围社区产生负面影响。采矿和矿物加工消耗和污染水；二氧化碳排放量大；并与当地社区争夺土地和生态系统服务。它们也会产生废物——大量的不经济的岩石，以及加工过程中留下的细磨矿物的湿浆，这些被称为大量的尾矿。近年来，由于尾矿储存设施（TSF）的故障造成的灾难，对运行中的尾矿储存设施和遗留的尾矿储存设施的管理提出了额外的审查。在菲律宾，地形崎岖，降雨量大，包括台风和定期地震事件，TSF仍然存在失效的风险，并继续向下游排放受污染的水。这些问题不仅影响到正在运营的矿山，废弃或关闭矿区的遗留尾矿也是持续存在的环境危害。只有创新，才能实现可持续的TSF管理新标准。通过我们提出的大型项目，我们将提供基础科学来支持这种创新，整合跨学科的专业知识和在地球物理层析监测、环境友好溶剂、原位再处理、工程纳米材料、地球微生物学、植物修复、土壤发育和材料表征等领域的新想法。我们的伙伴关系和项目发展奖助金的目标是：确定执行项目工作的最佳现场，并确保访问和权限。这将包括对菲律宾金属植物（耐金属和有时积累金属的植物）的综述；菲律宾矿石、矿山废料及尾矿；模拟了尾矿现场地球物理监测所需的参数和浸出液的流动规律。通过以下方式改进涉及利益相关者的项目：检查所涉及的不同技术及其相互作用，并制定方法；探索合作伙伴现有的设施和能力，并确定知识交流和能力建设的机会；制定管理计划；完成我们的团队。与一系列非矿业利益相关者进行接触，了解他们的需求，并战略性地沟通我们的项目目标和影响。与其他PPD项目建立联系。研究远程协作的新方法和技术。

We have assembled a team of interdisciplinary Philippine and UK researchers and industrial partners to build an innovative research programme to test sustainable tailings management, remediation and rehabilitation. Our ambitions are to produce tailings with less water consumption and greater stability and show how they can be monitored and adaptively managed in real time; and to enable the processing of modern and legacy tailings to recover more metals, whilst decontaminating them, encouraging rehabilitation and long-term stabilisation and re-use of the associated ecosystem services. The potential outcomes, impacts and benefits of this integrated research will be reduced community and environmental impacts from tailings, greater compliance with international standards, improved social license to operate for mining companies, reduced long term liabilities and risks from legacy sites, and potential sources of revenue by secondary extraction of additional metals and land re-use.The world is moving to a low carbon economy that requires a greater amount and variety of metals from mining. The Philippines is the fifth most mineral-rich country in the world and therefore stands to benefit from this increased demand. However, mines can negatively impact on the environment and surrounding communities. Mining and mineral processing consume and contaminate water; have a large CO2 footprint; and compete with local communities for land and ecosystem services. They also produce waste - uneconomic volumes of rock, and wet slurries of finely-ground minerals left over from processing, known as tailings in large quantities.Recent disasters caused by the failure of tailings storage facilities (TSF) have brought extra scrutiny to the management of operational and legacy TSF. In the Philippines, with rugged topography, high rainfall including typhoons, and regular seismic events, TSF remain at risk of failure, and continue to discharge contaminated water downstream. These issues not only affect operational mines - legacy tailings at abandoned or closed mine sites are persistent environmental hazards. Only with innovation will new sustainable standards for TSF management be achieved. Through our proposed large project, we will deliver the fundamental science to underpin such innovation, integrating interdisciplinary expertise and novel ideas in the fields of geophysical tomographic monitoring, environmentally-benign solvents, in situ reprocessing, engineered nanomaterials, geomicrobiology, phytoremediation, soil development and materials characterisation.Our Partnership and Project Development grant objectives are to:1. Identify the optimum field sites in which to perform the project work and secure access and permissions. This will include reviews of Philippines metallophytes (metal-tolerant and sometimes metal accumulating plants); Philippine ores, mine waste materials and tailings; and modelling the parameters needed for in situ geophysical monitoring of tailings and how leaching fluids will flow.2. Refine the project involving stakeholders through: Examining the different technologies involved and their interactions and develop methodologies; Exploring the facilities and capabilities available at partners and identifying opportunities for knowledge exchange and capacity building; Developing a management plan; Completing our team.3. Carry out engagement with a range of non-mining stakeholders to understand their needs and to strategically communicate our project aims and impact.4. Network with other PPD projects.5. Examine novel approaches and technologies for remote collaboration.