Rock dust from mine waste as a natural media amendment in forest reclamation and the production of high value agronomic and horticultural crops

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Anaconda Mining Inc is the industry partner in this application. They produce approximately 400,000 tonnes of RD annually as a waste byproduct from precious metal (gold) mining, and have unique volume of this material for potential commercial use. Preliminary investigations determined the chemical composition of the rock dust (RD) waste material is within acceptable limits for vegetable crop cultivation.The proposed study seek to evaluate the potential of RD generated as a waste product of precious metal mining as a suitable natural media amendment for forest reclamation and agriculture crop production. Furthermore, wood chip biomass is used successfully to scavenge ammonia following gold processing at the Industry partners operation. This work proposed to also evaluate the potential of the wood chip biomass as a useful source of nitrogen for crop growth under controlled environmental conditions. The first stage of this project will involve a comprehensive chemical analysis of the RD to determine contaminants and mineral nutrient composition for crop growth. In the second stage, we will use the RD chemical composition to formulate different combinations of soil or media mixes with RD to evaluate suitability for crop production under field and greenhouse conditions. In the third stage, we will seek to determine the potential of RD for boreal forest reclamation after resource mining. In the final stage, we proposed to develop a RD or wood chip biomass based media as a proof of concept for controlled environment crop production. The proposed study is a multidisciplinary applied research project that will be of mutual benefits to the academic and industry partners. Outputs generated from this study will contribute to better understanding of the quality of the RD waste material and nitrogen enriched wood chip biomass, suitability for field and greenhouse crop production/forest reclamation, mechanisms associated with RD role in crop biofortification, as well as HQP training opportunities for graduate students. The industry partner will use these results to generate commercial opportunities or use of this waste products as a new revenue stream for the company. Furthermore, the use of RD or wood chip biomass as a natural media amendment will provide opportunities for increase food production in NL and could be part of a long term strategy to mitigate current challenges with food security in the Province.