State and federal reclamation programs, mining operators, and citizen-based watershed organizations have constructed hundreds of passive systems in the eastern U.S. over the past 20 years to provide reliable, low cost, low maintenance mine water treatment in remote locations. While performance has been reported for individual systems, there has not been a comprehensive evaluation of the perform...

Fly Ash (FA) from a power station in South Africa was investigated to neutralise and remove contaminants from Acid Mine Drainage (AMD). After this primary treatment the insoluble FA residue namely solid residue (SR) was investigated as a suitable mine backfill material by means of strength testing. Moreover, SR was used to synthesise zeolite-P using a two-step synthesis procedure. Furthermore, ...

Two seams at the Tab-Simco abandoned underground coal mine site in southern Illinois were mined intermittently from the 1890’s until 1955, and later surface mined. The stripping operations resulted in several break-ins into the old underground works which were later buried by mine spoil. The resulting mine pool in the lower of the two seams has been producing an average of ~150 m per day of aci...

Research was carried out to improve acid rock drainage (ARD) prediction methodologies, focussing on resolving uncertainties in acid base accounting (ABA) methods. Advancements, their application, and interpretation are reported. Consideration of both net acid production potential (NAPP) and net acid generation (NAG) test results provide a more reliable routine screening technique than either te...

Mining activity produces metal sulfide wastes particularly pyrite which remain in the mine long after operations cease. When water percolates through a mine where oxygen is present, a series of chemical reactions occur which produce extremely low pH and high concentrations of toxic sulfate and metal ions. This toxic leachate can cause severe aquatic habitat degradation downstream of the mine. T...

The disposal of sulfide mine tailings in an environmentally sound, yet cost-effective, manner is an issue facing most metal mines. Subaqueous tailing disposal is considered an attractive option for disposal that limits oxygen (O2) availability within sulfide mine tailings and controlling sulfide oxidation and the resultant acid mine drainage (AMD). Assuming that O2 profiles represent steady-sta...

Metagenomic studies are revolutionizing our understanding of microbes in the biosphere. They have uncovered numerous proteins of unknown function in tens of essentially unstudied lineages that lack cultivated representatives. Notably, few of these microorganisms have been visualized, and even fewer have been described ultra-structurally in their essentially intact, physiologically relevant stat...

Bioremediating acid mine drainage requires understanding how microbial communities influence geochemical cycling of iron and sulfur biologically important elements such as carbon nitrogen. Research in this area has provided an abundance 16S rRNA gene amplicon data.

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is one of the most significant environmental challenges facing the mining industry worldwide. Water infiltrating through the metal sulphide minerals, effluents of mineral processing plants and seepage from tailing dams becomes acidic and this acidic nature of the solution allows the metals to be transported in their most soluble form. The conventional treatment technolo...

Acid mine drainage (AMD) emplacements are low-complexity natural systems. Low-pH conditions appear to be the main factor underlying the limited diversity of the microbial populations thriving in these environments, although temperature, ionic composition, total organic carbon, and dissolved oxygen are also considered to significantly influence their microbial life. This natural reduction in div...