Assessing the Use of Geochemical Modelling in Supporting Mine Site Remediation

Assessing the Use of Geochemical Modelling in Supporting Mine Site Remediation PDF Author: Marlese Elizabeth Fairgray
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Abandoned mines
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description

Assessing the Use of Geochemical Modelling in Supporting Mine Site Remediation

Assessing the Use of Geochemical Modelling in Supporting Mine Site Remediation PDF Author: Marlese Elizabeth Fairgray
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Abandoned mines
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description


Geochemical Modeling for Mine Site Characterization and Remediation

Geochemical Modeling for Mine Site Characterization and Remediation PDF Author: D. Kirk Nordstrom
Publisher: Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration
ISBN: 0873353536
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
The single most important factor for the successful application of a geochemical model is the knowledge and experience of the individual(s) conducting the modeling. Geochemical Modeling for Mine Site Characterization and Remediation is the fourth of six volumes in the Management Technologies for Metal Mining Influenced Water series about technologies for management of metal mine and metallurgical process drainage. This handbook describes the important components of hydrogeochemical modeling for mine environments, primarily those mines where sulfide minerals are present—metal mines and coal mines. It provides general guidelines on the strengths and limitations of geochemical modeling and an overview of its application to the hydrogeochemistry of both unmined mineralized sites and those contaminated from mineral extraction and mineral processing. The handbook includes an overview of the models behind the codes, explains vital geochemical computations, describes several modeling processes, provides a compilation of codes, and gives examples of their application, including both successes and failures. Hydrologic modeling is also included because mining contaminants most often migrate by surface water and groundwater transport, and contaminant concentrations are a function of water residence time as well as pathways. This is an indispensable resource for mine planners and engineers, environmental managers, land managers, consultants, researchers, government regulators, nongovernmental organizations, students, stakeholders, and anyone with an interest in mining influenced water. The other handbooks in the series are Basics of Metal Mining Influenced Water; Mitigation of Metal Mining Influenced Water; Mine Pit Lakes: Characteristics, Predictive Modeling, and Sustainability; Techniques for Predicting Metal Mining Influenced Water; and Sampling and Monitoring for the Mine Life Cycle.

Derelict Mines

Derelict Mines PDF Author: Ravi Naidu
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1040102344
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Mine areas left behind by companies that no longer exist are defined as derelict mines – those that were operated and closed at a time when most countries did not have adequate regulations requiring rehabilitation of the impacted mine areas. This book provides unique information on the extent and severity of derelict mines’ impact on environmental degradation and human and environmental health. It examines the nature of derelict mines, short-term and long-term risks to sensitive receptors, tools for monitoring and prioritizing risks, and technological advances for rehabilitation. This book considers a risk-based approach to managing derelict mines, which is reliable and cost-effective. FEATURES Provides fundamental information on derelict mines and their inventory in different countries Explains risk-based management of derelict mines and the importance of community perspectives as a reliable and cost-effective method Identifies ownership and liability issues through many case studies in Australia and other countries that must deal with the remediation of derelict mines Presents remediation, assessment, and predictive tools for managing pit lakes Helps readers set standards, regulatory measures, and policies related to mine closures This book is for engineers and professionals who work in mining, geology, chemistry, mineralogy, geotechnics, and hydrogeology and deal with industrial site management, waste management, mine closures, mine site reclamation, derelict mine remediation, and mine revegetation. It is also an insightful resource for graduate students, academics, and researchers focused on these courses.

Assessment, Restoration and Reclamation of Mining Influenced Soils

Assessment, Restoration and Reclamation of Mining Influenced Soils PDF Author: Jaume Bech
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128097299
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 522

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Book Description
Assessment, Restoration and Reclamation of Mining Influenced Soils covers processes operating in the environment as a result of mining activity, including the whole spectra of negative effects of anthropopressure and the environment, from changes in soil chemistry, changes in soil physical properties, geomechanical disturbances, and mine water discharges. Mining activity and its waste are an environmental concern. Knowledge of the fate of potentially harmful elements and their effect on plants and the food chain, and ultimately on human health, is still being understood. Therefore, there is a need for better knowledge on the origin, distribution, and management of mine waste on a global level. This book provides information on hazard assessment and remediation of the disturbed environment, including stabilization of contaminated soils and phytoremediation, and will help scientists and public authorities formulate answers to the daily challenges related to the restoration of contaminated land. Provides a thorough overview of the processes operating on mining-devastated areas, as well as origin, distribution, and deactivation of harmful elements Includes outcomes and recommendations of the Global Mining Initiative that are widely regarded as the code of conduct in the minerals industry Contains global case studies that elucidate various aspects of assessment and restoration of mine-contaminated land

Understanding and Responding to Hazardous Substances at Mine Sites in the Western United States

Understanding and Responding to Hazardous Substances at Mine Sites in the Western United States PDF Author: Jerome V. DeGraff
Publisher: Geological Society of America
ISBN: 0813741173
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
This volume is a collection of papers resulting from a symposium held at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists in Reno, Nevada. The majority of the chapters present hydro-geochemical studies of select sites, but with the variety of localities and approaches taken, this book will more widely appeal to land and resource managers, geologists, and engineers working with abandoned mines or modern site remediation efforts.

Acid Mine Drainage, Rock Drainage, and Acid Sulfate Soils

Acid Mine Drainage, Rock Drainage, and Acid Sulfate Soils PDF Author: James A. Jacobs
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470487860
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
Provides the tools needed to analyze and solve acid drainage problems Featuring contributions from leading experts in science and engineering, this book explores the complex biogeochemistry of acid mine drainage, rock drainage, and acid sulfate soils. It describes how to predict, prevent, and remediate the environmental impact of acid drainage and the oxidation of sulfides, offering the latest sampling and analytical methods. Moreover, readers will discover new approaches for recovering valuable resources from acid mine drainage, including bioleaching. Acid Mine Drainage, Rock Drainage, and Acid Sulfate Soils reviews the most current findings in the field, offering new insights into the underlying causes as well as new tools to minimize the harm of acid drainage: Part I: Causes of Acid Mine Drainage, Rock Drainage and Sulfate Soils focuses on the biogeochemistry of acid drainage in different environments. Part II: Assessment of Acid Mine Drainage, Rock Drainage and Sulfate Soils covers stream characterization, aquatic and biological sampling, evaluation of aquatic resources, and some unusual aspects of sulfide oxidation. Part III: Prediction and Prevention of Acid Drainage discusses acid-base accounting, kinetic testing, block modeling, petrology, and mineralogy studies. It also explains relevant policy and regulations. Part IV: Remediation of Acid Drainage, Rock Drainage and Sulfate Soils examines both passive and active cleanup methods to remediate acid drainage. Case studies from a variety of geologic settings highlight various approaches to analyzing and solving acid drainage problems. Replete with helpful appendices and an extensive list of web resources, Acid Mine Drainage, Rock Drainage, and Acid Sulfate Soils is recommended for mining engineers and scientists, regulatory officials, environmental scientists, land developers, and students.

Environmental Geochemistry

Environmental Geochemistry PDF Author: Benedetto DeVivo
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 044464007X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description
Environmental Geochemistry: Site Characterization, Data Analysis and Case Histories, Second Edition, reviews the role of geochemistry in the environment and details state-of-the-art applications of these principles in the field, specifically in pollution and remediation situations. Chapters cover both philosophy and procedures, as well as applications, in an array of issues in environmental geochemistry including health problems related to environment pollution, waste disposal and data base management. This updated edition also includes illustrations of specific case histories of site characterization and remediation of brownfield sites. Covers numerous global case studies allowing readers to see principles in action Explores the environmental impacts on soils, water and air in terms of both inorganic and organic geochemistry Written by a well-respected author team, with over 100 years of experience combined Includes updated content on: urban geochemical mapping, chemical speciation, characterizing a brownsfield site and the relationship between heavy metal distributions and cancer mortality

Uranium, Mining and Hydrogeology

Uranium, Mining and Hydrogeology PDF Author: Broder J. Merkel
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540877460
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 977

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Book Description
Subject of the book is Uranium and its migration in aquatic environments. The following subjects are emphasised: Uranium mining, Phosphate mining, mine closure and remediation, Uranium in groundwater and in bedrock, biogeochemistry of Uranium, environmental behavior, and modeling. Particular results from the leading edge of international research are presented.

A Mechanistic Approach to Assessment of the Geochemical Evolution of Low Sulfide Mine-waste Rock

A Mechanistic Approach to Assessment of the Geochemical Evolution of Low Sulfide Mine-waste Rock PDF Author: David Wilson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The potential for mine wastes to generate elevated concentrations of solutes including metals, sulfate, and reduced pH exists wherever mine-waste rock is stockpiled at the Earth's surface representing one of the world's largest environmental problems. The assessment of the long-term geochemical evolution of mine wastes is of critical importance in the process of mine-life planning because of the potential for adverse impacts of released solutes and low pH effluent to receiving environments. The Diavik Waste Rock Project included laboratory and field experiments investigating the geochemical evolution of low-sulfide mine-waste rock at different scales. The experiments included small-scale humidity cells (0.1 m high; laboratory), medium-scale lysimeters (2 m high; field), and large-scale test piles (15 m high; field) to facilitate development of a mechanistic approach to scaling results of the laboratory experiments to make assessments regarding the geochemical evolution at the larger field experiments. This process, generally referred to scale-up, often involves the use of humidity cell experiment results coupled with empirical scale factors to make predictions about the long term geochemistry of effluent released form mine-waste stockpiles. The empirical factors used typically include parameters known to influence rates of sulfide oxidation including mineral content, particle-size distribution, temperature, moisture content, and oxygen availability. These scale-up factors often fail to account for site specific heterogeneities in physical and chemical properties that can strongly influence the prediction process. Mechanistic approaches (i.e., the use of geochemical models including reactive transport models) have the potential to include complex heterogeneities that facilitate a quantitative assessment of the long-term geochemical evolution of mine wastes. A conceptual model of the geochemical evolution of low-sulfide waste rock was developed to facilitate numerical simulations of the small-scale experiments and then was used to simulate the geochemical evolution in the larger scale field experiments. The conceptual model, based on oxidation of sulfide minerals coupled with the geochemical weathering of host minerals present in waste rock produced at the Diavik Diamond Mine (NT, Canada), was implemented using the reactive transport code MIN3P. The 1-D model was calibrated to capture the effluent concentrations from the laboratory-scale experiments then used to simulate the geochemical evolution at the larger scale field experiments, without further calibration, to assess the efficacy of the mechanistic scale-up approach. Geostatistical analyses of mineralogical and particle-size distribution samples were conducted to assess the heterogeneity of S, C, and saturated hydraulic conductivity. The results of the geostatistical analyses were used to inform spatial distributions of S, C, and saturated hydraulic conductivity as input to reactive transport simulations of the large-scale field experiment. The 2-D simulations were conducted to assess the influence of heterogeneity in S, C, and saturated hydraulic conductivity on the geochemical evolution of the waste rock. The results of the humidity cell simulations indicate that the conceptual model represents the primary geochemical processes of the low-sulfide waste rock weathering. The simulated effluent concentrations compares well with the measured solute concentrations from the humidity cells, although some divergence for specific parameters was observed. Mineral surface area, mineral content, temperature, and pH were identified as important factors controlling the geochemical evolution of the waste rock. The results of the model developed and calibrated at the humidity-cell scale suggested that the conceptual model could be representative of the DWRP waste rock weathering in general and the implemented model could be used to simulate waste rock weathering for the field scale experiments. The implementation of the conceptual model at the medium-scale field experiments involved inclusion of measured temporally dynamic temperature and infiltration to better represent the physical conditions at the field experiments. Implementation at the large-scale test pile experiments included providing spatially dynamic temperature. Inclusion of these parameters as model input facilitated completion of multi-year simulations essential to making long-term assessments of the geochemical evolution of waste rock. Scaling the humidity cell conceptual model to simulate the geochemical evolution at the field-experiment scales resulted in good visual agreement between measured and simulated concentrations and mass flux of most parameters. The pH was generally over estimated in the medium- and large-scale field simulations. Supplemental simulations indicate that calcite availability was lower for the field experiments (approximately 20% of measured content). The field experiment simulations did not rely on geochemical data for calibration; however, these simulations did rely on site-specific physical data, including mineralogy-related parameters such as volume fraction, hydrology-related parameters including hydraulic conductivity, grain-size distribution, porosity, and water-retention curve values, and environmental parameters including temperature, precipitation, and O2 concentration (the field systems were not O2 limited); to facilitate an assessment of the geochemical evolution of waste rock. The reactive transport simulations demonstrated that a comprehensive, integrated conceptual model representing the geochemical evolution of low-sulfide waste rock, implemented and calibrated at the humidity-cell scale can be applied to field-scale experiments using a small number of measurable parameters to constrain the simulations. Parameters should include mineral content, bulk mineral surface area, and particle-size distribution, water flow and infiltration characteristics as well as general climatic conditions (specifically temperature and precipitation). The reliance on readily available, measurable parameters suggests that this approach could be implemented at other sites using the appropriate site specific parameters. This mechanistic approach provides the basis for predictive scale-up. Consideration of the influence of temperature on the geochemical reactions was a major factor facilitating the scale-up of the model. The humidity cell experiments were conducted at temperatures 5 °C and 22 °C to allow calibration for the influence of temperature, which was a critical component in the scale-up process because of the varied temperatures at which surface-stored waste rock is exposed. Measurement of temperature at the field scale would be an important component of any scale-up program. The results of the geostatistical analyses indicate the spatial distributions of S, C, and saturated hydraulic conductivity in the test-pile experiments could be approximated using a log normal distribution with mean and standard deviation calculated from samples collected during test pile construction for each parameter. A lack of spatial dependence for matrix hydraulic conductivity was significant because the matrix material exerted strong control over the flow of water through the test-pile experiments. The spatial distributions of S, C, and saturated hydraulic conductivity in the test piles experiments provides a foundation from which full-scale waste-rock piles could be characterized using the geostatistical methods described. The spatial dependence of saturated hydraulic conductivity in larger piles may also depend on the influence of features which were not present in the test-pile experiments (e.g., traffic surfaces). The investigation of the influence of mineralogical and physical heterogeneity on the geochemical evolution in the Type III test-pile suggested that heterogeneous distributions of S and C mineralogy and saturated hydraulic conductivity field resulted in variations of effluent concentrations that were at times, consistent with the measured variation. Analysis of the results of the heterogeneous simulations indicate that the distribution of solute mass fluxes from the test-pile experiment for most parameters could be best approximated with a log normal probability density function.

Solid Waste: Assessment, Monitoring and Remediation

Solid Waste: Assessment, Monitoring and Remediation PDF Author: I. Twardowska
Publisher: Gulf Professional Publishing
ISBN: 008054147X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1161

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Book Description
This book covers a broad group of wastes, from biowaste to hazardous waste, but primarily the largest (by mass and volume) group of wastes that are not hazardous, but also are not inert, and are problematic for three major reasons: (1) they are difficult to manage because of their volume: usually they are used in civil engineering as a common fill etc., where they are exposed to environmental conditions almost the same way as at disposal sites; (2) they are not geochemically stable and in the different periods of environmental exposure undergo transformations that might add hazardous properties to the material that are not displayed when it is freshly generated; (3) many designers and researchers in different countries involved in waste management are often not aware of time-delayed adverse environmental impact of some large-volume waste, and also do not consider some positive properties that may extend the area of their environmentally beneficial application.