Abstract: Acid rock drainage remains the greatest environmental issue faced by the mining sector and as the new millennium approaches, low capital/operating cost treatments remain elusive. Therefore as part of an ongoing process to develop a leading edge, innovative and cost-effective approach, pilot trials were conducted by KEECO in collaboration with the New Bunker Hill Mining Company on a substantial and problematic metal-contaminated acid flow, emanating from underground workings at the Bunker Hill Mine, Idaho. The aims of the work were fourfold. First to assess the capacity of KEECO's unique Silica Micro Encapsulation (SME) reagents and associated dosing systems to cost-effectively decontaminate the acid flow to stringent standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), where alternative and standard technologies had failed. Second, to demonstrate that treatment using a compact system suitable for underground installation. Third, to demonstrate that the treatment sludge had enhanced chemical stability in absolute terms and relative to standard approaches. Fourth, to examine the potential for resource recovery via sequential precipitation. Although the focus to date has been the development of a cost-effective treatment technology, the latter aim was considered essential in light of the growing pressure on all industrial sectors to develop tools for environmentally sustainable economic growth and the growing demands of stakeholders for improved resource usage and recycling. Two phases of work were undertaken: a laboratory-based scoping exercise followed by installation within the mine workings of a compact reagent delivery/shear mixing unit capable of treating the full flow of 31 L s (super -1) . At a dose rate of 2.0 g L (super -1) (equivalent to a final treated water pH range of 7-9), the SME reagent KB-1 reduced metal concentrations to levels approaching the U.S. Drinking Water Standards, which no other treatment piloted at the site had achieved. Based on the USEPA's Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure, the sludge arising from the treatment was classified as non-hazardous. Operating costs compared favourably with those of lime use, while estimated capital costs were considerably lower due to the compact nature of the reagent delivery system and the rapid settling characteristics of the treatment sediment. Resource recovery was attempted using a two-stage selective precipitation approach. The first stage involved pH adjustment to 5.5 (by addition of 1.5 g L (super -1) of KB-1) to produce a sludge enriched in aluminium, iron and manganese, with lesser amounts of arsenic, nickel, lead and zinc. Further KB-1 addition to a total of 2.1 g L (super -1) generated sludge enriched in zinc (33% by dry weight), demonstrating that resource recovery is theoretically feasible. Further work on downstream processing is required, although it is considered that the most likely route for zinc metal recovery will be high temperature/pressure due to the chemically inert nature of the zinc-rich sediment.

Abstract: Sludge management is an escalating concern as the inventory of sludge continues to grow through perpetual “pump and treat” of acidic waters at mine sites. Current sludge management practices, in general, are ad hoc and frequently do not adress long-term storage, and in some cases, long-term stability. While a variety of sludge disposal practices have been applied, many have not been fully investigated and monitoring data on the performance of these technologies is limited and not readily available. This paper discusses options for treatment sludge management including conventionale disposal technologies and options for reclamation of sludge areas.