Gap between Humidity Cell Testing Data and Geochemical Modeling of Acid Rock Drainage

Abstract

Copyright: © 2014 Sunkavalli SP. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Rock Piles are man-made structures consisting of piles of non-ore overburden material that had to be removed in order to extract ore. These materials were discarded by dumping in rock piles as close to the open pit. In the long run they became the reason for environmental hazards. They pose problems like acid rock drainage (ARD), leaching of heavy metals, erosion, slope stability concerns, and undesirable aesthetic views. ARD is a major source of water pollution arising from the weathering of sulfide bearing minerals.The formation of acid drainage and the contaminants associated with it have been described by some as the largest environmental problem facing the U.S. mining industry [1].