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Kinetic Testing and Sorption Studies by Modified Weathering Cells to Characterize the Potential to Generate Contaminated Neutral Drainage

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Abstract

Techniques developed for acid mine drainage (AMD) prediction might not be suitable for contaminated neutral drainage (CND) generating sites. The Tio mine waste is known to generate Ni contaminated neutral drainage in some of the piles, but humidity cell tests fail to generate the Ni concentrations observed in the field. Weathering cell tests (small-scale humidity cell tests) were performed on fresh and weathered (produced 25 years ago) waste rock samples from the Tio mine containing various levels of hemo-ilmenite ore, and results were compared to humidity cell results on similar samples. The main constituents of the waste rock are the hemo-ilmenite ore and the plagioclase gangue; these minerals were purified from the waste rocks and the purified fractions were also submitted to weathering cell tests. The fresh waste rock samples were also submitted to sorption cells (modified weathering cells), which showed that the waste rocks have an important Ni sorption potential and that the sorbed phases are stable under weathering cell conditions. Even though the Ni concentrations obtained from the laboratory tests remain significantly lower than those obtained in field conditions (from field test pads and from waste rock piles), the results from the present study give important insight into the geochemical processes implicated in CND generation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the NSERC Polytechnique-UQAT Chair in Environment and Mine Wastes Management and the NSERC Collaborative Research and Development Grants for funding of this project. The authors also thank Donald Laflamme of Rio Tinto, Iron and Titanium, Inc., for the funding and constant support of this project, as well as Genevieve Pepin for providing samples and insight in the project. Alain Perreault, Mélanie Bélanger, and Mathieu Villeneuve of URSTM, UQAT are also acknowledged for their laboratory support during this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Univ du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), 445, boul de l’Université, Rouyn-Noranda, QC, J9X5E4, Canada

    B. Plante, M. Benzaazoua & B. Bussière

  2. NSERC-Polytechnique-UQAT Chair, Environment and Mine Waste Mgmt, 445, boul de l’Université, Rouyn-Noranda, QC, Canada

    B. Plante, M. Benzaazoua & B. Bussière

  3. Canada Research Chair on Integrated Mgmt of Mine Waste, UQAT, 445, boul de l’Université, Rouyn-Noranda, QC, Canada

    M. Benzaazoua

  4. Canada Research Chair on the Restoration of Abandoned Mine Sites, UQAT, 445, boul de l’Université, Rouyn-Noranda, QC, Canada

    B. Bussière

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  1. B. Plante
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to B. Plante.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

10230_2010_131_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Electronic Supplementary Material 1: Cumulative normalized loadings for waste rock samples submitted to weathering cells (PDF 60 kb)

10230_2010_131_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

Electronic Supplementary Material 2: Weathering cell results of cumulative normalized loadings on pure minerals (PDF 345 kb)

10230_2010_131_MOESM3_ESM.pdf

Electronic Supplementary Material 3: Weathering cell results of cumulative normalized loadings of S (a), Ni (b) and Co (c) on pure minerals (PDF 74 kb)

10230_2010_131_MOESM4_ESM.pdf

Electronic Supplementary Material 4: Compared cumulative normalized loadings for waste rock samples by weathering cells (PDF 37 kb)

10230_2010_131_MOESM5_ESM.pdf

Electronic Supplementary Material 5: Compared cumulative normalized loadings for pure minerals samples in weathering cells (PDF 198 kb)

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Plante, B., Benzaazoua, M. & Bussière, B. Kinetic Testing and Sorption Studies by Modified Weathering Cells to Characterize the Potential to Generate Contaminated Neutral Drainage. Mine Water Environ 30, 22–37 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10230-010-0131-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10230-010-0131-3

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