GEOL 4290 Topics in
Environmental Geoscience
Characterization and Remediation of Mine Waste
Instructor: Dr Barbara L.
Sherriff, Room 232 Wallace Building
Phone
474-9786; email BL_SHERRIFF@UMANITOBA.CA
Website:http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/science/geological_sciences/faculty/sherriff/website/
Objectives
Extraction of resources
such as precious and base metals, diamonds, coal and oil sands by mining
produces vast quantities of solid waste in the form of crushed rock, slag and
tailings, waste water and air pollution. These can be major sources of ground
and surface water contamination for many decades after mining ceases. This course is designed for students who are
interested in environmental issues related to mining.
The course will deal
with the mineralogical, geochemical and microbiological processes which are
occurring in mine waste. This will
include methods to characterize these unstable and often very fine grained
materials and model geochemical and mineralogical data to understand the
processes involved. We will also examine methods of remediation of mine sites
and will include the issues involved in containment and revegetation of various
types of waste under a variety of climatic, topographic and socio-economic
conditions.
The course will be in a discussion format and
students will be responsible for presenting material and leading class
discussions during the term. These presentations will be linked to the term
papers. There is no official laboratory component but students will be
introduced to field, analytical and modelling techniques.
Mark Distribution
Paper 1:
Outline and
bibliography due Friday 18th January 2%
Full paper due
Friday 15th February 10%
Class Presentation 8%
Biweekly news diary
10%
First instalment due Monday 14th January
Assignments and
class participation 10%
Paper 2:
Outline and
bibliography 2%
Full paper 10%
Class Presentation 8%
Final Exam 40%
ROAS etc.
Material covered in the
assigned readings, class handouts and in lectures will be examined in the final
examination. Material presented by guest
lecturers will also be examinable.
Assignments
which are handed in late will be penalized at 5% per day up to a maximum of
100% of the mark for that assignment.
Consult
the University of Manitoba General Calendar (2007-2008) regarding academic
dishonesty including plagiarism and cheating, and examination impersonation.
The
grade from the first paper and assignments will constitute feedback before VW
day, 19th March 2008
Term Papers and Assignments
Paper 1 will be a description of a polluted mine outside of North
America. Each student will describe a different mine. The paper will include discussions of the geological,
geographical and social setting of the mine and a detailed discussion of the mining
process and environmental issues. The choice of mine must be made with
consultation with Dr Sherriff by Monday 14th January and a one page outline and
bibliography by 18th January. The full paper (7-15 pages) will be due on Friday
15th February and 15 minute presentations and class discussions will be given
during the week of 25th February. Abstracts will be given to the class prior to
the presentation to facilitate discussion.
As environmental issues relating to mine waste are constantly in the
news, you will be required to keep a weekly diary of news items relating to
these issues, especially relating to Canada or Canadian Mining companies. Items
should be collected from newspapers or from the web and submitted biweekly with
an annotated bibliography which includes critical evaluation of the news items.
Students should try to find differing points of view for each environmental
issue. The first instalment is due on Monday 14th January.
Paper 2 will lead from these news items. It will be a paper related to a
mining environmental topic which has been in the news. This be an individual
case study of one polluted mine site which is in the news or it may be a more
general topic with many examples. For the paper you will have to do background
research on either the mine or the topic. I will expect a 7-15 page discussion
of the subject including a critical review of the reporting. The outline and
bibliography for the paper is due on Monday March 10th and the final paper
Friday 11th April. Presentations and class discussions will be given on these
papers between 7 and 11 April.
Other assignments may involve analysis and computer modelling of mine
waste and mine water. As this will be a small class with a discussion format,
there are also marks for participation.
Papers must be double spaced with pages numbered. References will be
inserted into the text at the point where the information is used and listed at
the end in a standard geological journal format. This can be Canadian Journal
of Earth Sciences or Canadian Mineralogist. All figures including maps must be
cited in the text, numbered consecutively and have a caption and reference.
Presentations must be in Powerpoint format.
Provisional list of Topics
Topics may be deleted, added or covered in a different order.
There may be guest lectures on specific topics.
Topic 1:
Mine
Processes
Extraction:
open pit, underground, strip mining
Beneficiation:
Waste
generation and treatment
Introduction to ARD
Sullivan Mine
Topic 2:
Methodology
Analytical
techniques for solid and liquid: both field and laboratory based.
Topic 3: Acid Rock
Drainage:
CM case
study
Mechanism
of acid generation (reactions, acid generating minerals).
Differences
in acid generation from Au, Fe or Pb-Zn tailings
Comparative
weathering rates of sulfides,
Kinetics
of redox reaction
Neutralization:
acid neutralizing minerals, reactions, comparative kinetics of dissolution of
carbonates and silicates
Net neutralizing potential: calculation and
determination
Guest Lecture; Patrick Solylo:
Ground and surface water. Notes will be distributed at the
lecture
Reference for Manitoba
Hydrogeology
Topic 4: Secondary
Minerals:
•
sulfates (soluble/insoluble, occurrences, role
in remobilisation)
• iron and aluminium oxides/hydroxides (conditions of precipitation, role in metal and arsenic absorption)
• secondary silicates (gap in sulfide mine wastes studies, role and occurrence)
Topic 5 Cyanide complexation in gold
tailings
Formation and stability
Bioremediation
Topic 6 Microbial interactions in
mine tailings Stan.
Zagury and Neculita (2007)
Aerobic and anaerobic bacteria
Redox reactions
Topic 7: Arsenic updated
•
Mineralogy: primary, and secondary
species
•
Stability
and mobility
`
Topic 8: Mine
water
Detoxifying pit lakes
Spray
freezing
Pit
lakes
Underground flooding
Submerged tailings
Topic 9 Aqueous Geochemistry
including the use of modelling programs
You need to download Phreeqc from
http://www.geo.vu.nl/users/posv/phreeqc/index.html
Phreeqc
Get going
Lime treatment Phreeqc program
Saturation indices Phreeqc
program
Topic
10: Selenium
•
Aqueous
Species
•
Mineralogy: primary, and secondary
species
•
Stability and mobility
Topic 11 Mercury
Revegetation
Phytoremediation
Text Resources:
There is no text book for this course. The resources detailed below as
well as selected papers will be made available via Dr Sherriff or the science
library during the course.
Alpers, C.N., Blowes, D.W.,
(1994) Geochemistry of Sulphide Oxidation.
American Chemical Society, Symposium Series, 550.
Alpers, C.N., Jambor, J.L.
Nordstrom, D.K. (2000) Sulphate Minerals, Crystallography, Geochemistry and
Environmental Significance. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 40, MSA.
Blowes, D.W. & Jambor,
J.L. (1994) The Environmental Geochemistry of Sulphide Mine Wastes MAC Short
Course Handbook vol 22.
Drever, J.I. The Geochemistry of Natural Waters. 3rd
edition, Prentice Hall
Filipek, L.H., Plumlee, G.S. (1999) The Environmental Geochemistry of
Mineral Deposits Part B case Studies and Research Topics. Society of Economic Geologists, Inc. Reviews
in Economic Geology Volume 6B
Jambor, J.L. Blowes, D.W.
(2003): Environmental Aspects of Mine Wastes. MAC short course volume 31.
Editor Robert Raeside.
Langmuir, D. (1997) Aqueous Environmental geochemistry. Prentice Hall
Inc., New Jersey.
Plumlee, G.S. and Logsden, M. (1999) The Environmental Geochemistry of
Mineral Deposits. Part A Processes, Techniques, and Health Issues. Society of Economic Geologists, Inc. Reviews
in Economic Geology Volume 6A
Vaughan, D.J. and Wogelius,
R.A., (2000) Environmental Mineralogy Volume 2. European Mineralogical Union
Notes in Mineralogy. Eotvos University
Press, Budapest.