Improvement of prediction tools for contaminated mine drainage: assessment of scale, geomicrobiology, and sorption issues

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Despite numerous advances in the prediction of mine water quality in the last decades, the mining industry is still facing critical challenges. In particular, available water quality prediction tools are still limited by issues related to: scale effects between laboratory, field, and full-scale data; assessing the effectiveness of laboratory kinetic tests to reproduce the microbial community effects and to evaluate their involvement to the overall geochemistry of mine wastes in ambient and cold temperatures; and the impacts of sorption phenomena on contaminant concentrations. The proposal aims to tackle these issues through a combination of advanced chemical, mineralogical, and microbiological characterizations (including both genomic and culture-dependent techniques), as well as through kinetic tests at the laboratory and field scales. Kinetic testing at the laboratory scale will be performed at room temperature as well as under conditions typical of northern environments, namely sub-zero temperatures and highly saline drainage waters, while the field testing will be performed directly at the mine sites. Results from the various projects will not only improve the actual prediction tools, but also increase fundamental knowledge about scale-up issues from laboratory to field water quality prediction results, as well as the ability of kinetic tests to simulate the microbiological processes occurring in mine wastes and their effects on water quality in both temperate and arctic climates. The results from the proposed research program will improve the accuracy of mine water quality predictions, thus increasing the environmental performance of the mining industry. Furthermore, this program will provide training opportunities for future leaders in mine waste geochemistry through hands-on laboratory and field experience, as well as inter-university collaborations.