Electrochemical Treatment of Acid Mine Drainage from a South American Mine

Electrochemical treatment of acid mine drainage is a viable alternative to outdated and inefficient chemical treatments.

Clean&Recover has responded to the need to clean AMD and other mine-influenced water to:

• Remove sulphate
• Adjust pH to the mine-site’s preferred level without using chemicals such as lime
• Selectively precipitate metals from solution using pH control

Latest test results

Most recently, we tested the AMD from a mine located in the south western region of South America. The mine in question is a large operation which significantly contributes to global supplies of gold.

Acid mine drainage is produced as a result of mining operations to extract and process the gold and silver mineralization, which is made up of disseminations of native gold, native silver, electrum, silver sulphosalts, acanthite, accessory pyrite, and halides. These deposits are found alongside minerals of clay, quartz, carbonates, and adularia.

The result

We raised the pH of the AMD from 7 to 11 in a single treatment process.

We used 3.9 kWh/1000L to raise the pH to 11.

The water was effectively treated the water and yielded:

• Clean water
• Sulphuric acid concentrated from the sulphates in the AMD
• Metals precipitated from the AMD as metal hydroxides

The water was suitable for reuse for mining operations or for environmental discharge, meeting the required water parameters for discharge to the environment.

The process could reduce excess water on mine sites, helping to avoid the need for building or enlarging tailings storage facilities.

In addition, it would reduce the mine’s emissions of carbon dioxide from traditional lime-based methods of water treatment.

To find out more about how your site could benefit from this water treatment method, please contact Luke Berry, CEO of Clean&Recover by calling +61 417 077 342 or emailing luke.berry@cleanandrecover.com.au.