Improvements to mine drainage prediction for CND and REE/Li-bearing mine wastes

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One of the most serious environmental issues facing the mining industry worldwide is the contamination of drainage waters from tailings ponds and waste rock piles. Such contamination may occur when sulfide minerals in the mine wastes oxidize and generate contaminants in the drainage waters, leading to acid mine drainage (AMD) in acidic waters or to contaminated neutral drainage (CND) in near-neutral waters. The successful management and reclamation of potentially harmful wastes greatly depends on the use of predictive tests to determine the potential occurrence of contaminated mine drainage. These tests must be as accurate and representative as possible to ensure that environmental degradation by AMD or CND can be effectively and efficiently avoided or mitigated. The interpretation of these predictive tests requires an extensive knowledge of the composition of the studied materials, as well as of the different geochemical and microbiological mechanisms controlling the release of contaminants from mine wastes. This is especially critical for the emerging commodities of rare earth elements (REE) and lithium (Li), as well as mines in the Arctic.