Use of Bactericides to Control Acid Mine Drainage from Surface Operations

Abstract

Anionic surfactants such as sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, sodium laurel sulfate, and others are effective in controlling acid production from sulfidic mate1ials such as overburden, coal, coal refuse, ores, waste rock, and tailings. Their use in practical mining and reclamation applications, however, is only being recently documented since longer term field data are only now becoming available. This paper describes three applications of bacterial inhibitors. The first is at a surface coal mine where special handling and bacterial inhibition have prevented acid drainage from highly pyritic (more than 0.5% pyrite, neutralization potential less than 30 st per 1,000 st of CaC0 3 equivalent, and net deficiency of neutralizers of 15 st per 1,000 st of CaC0 3 equivalent) dark shale overburden for over 2 yr. The second application is at an active refuse disposal area where alkaline addition at more than three times that indicated by acid-base accounting failed to control acid production in refuse with 13% pyritic sulfur and neutralization deficiency of 444 st per 1,000 st of CaCO, equivalent. Bacterial inhibitors were successful in reducing acidity and metals in site underdrain effluent by 88% to 90%. The third application was at a silver mine where waste rock containing up to 0.37% pyrite was treated with surfactant bactericides to reduce leachate acidity by 93% and sulfates by 70%.

Alkaline Injection of Concentrated Sodium Hydroxide Solution into an Acidic Surface Mine Spoil Aquifer

“…In the former category are techniques such as coating of sulfidic materials with non-reactive compounds such as metal phosphates (Evangelou 1994;Georgopoulou et al 1996) or silica (Zhang and Evangelou 1998). A similar strategy involves adding solutions that inhibit activity of iron-oxidizing bacteria that catalyze AMD production at low pH (Parisi et al 1994). Such methods have met with limited success, attributed to the difficulty in near-complete coverage of sulfides in the spoil.…”

Ανάσχεση Προόδου Όξινης Απορροής Σε Θειούχα Ορυκτά Με Χρήση Φωσφορικών Και Πυριτικών Επικαλύψεων

“…Τα αντιβιοτικά έχουν υψηλό κόστος και επιβαρύνουν τα υδατικά οικοσυστήματα. Ανιοντικά τασιενεργά έχουν χρησιμοποιηθεί αποτελεσματικά για τον έλεγχο της δράσης των βακτηρίων, επιτυγχάνοντας μείωση της παραγωγής οξύτητας κατά 60 έως 95% σε θειούχα απόβλητα που περιέχουν σιδηροπυρίτη (Parisi et al, 1994;Rastogi, 1996;Ritcey, 1989).…”