Permanent under water storing of weathered mine waste after removal of fine fraction and addition of ash

Abstract

Weathered sulphidic mine waste is a major environmental problem. An experiment was performed in order to study water covers for oxidized mine waste. In two experiments oxidized mine waste were covered with water, in one experiment the fine fraction was removed and in one experiment alkaline ash was also added prior to water covering. It was found that removal of the fine fraction decreased pH and increased trace element concentrations. Water covering of the mine waste with and without ash decreased trace element concentrations indicating that co disposing oxidized sulphidic mine waste and ash under water might be a promising remediation method