Mine Waste:

Pollution Source
or Georesource?

Bernhard Dold

Bernhard.Dold@ltu.se
 Escondida, Chile

Tailings impoundment

Waste dumps

Open pit
Cerro de Pasco, Peru
 Cerro de Pasco, Perú

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)

Acid Rock Drainage (ARD)
Acid Drainage (AD)
Neutral Mine Waters (NMW)
Bahía de Ite, Perú

Dold et al. (2011)

Pan de Azúcar, Argentina
RioTinto, Spain
Exotica, Chuquicamata, Chile
 Acid Mine Drainage Development
1. Active

Caracteristics: - oxyanions-rich e.g.

SO4
due to Dissolution e.g. anhydrite,
NMW plume gypsum
2. Starting oxidation Liberation of Mo and As in the
alkaline flotation
Caracteristics: - liberation of Fe2+
and Fe3+; reduction of Fe3+ and high
Fe2+-rich plume mobility of ferrous at still neutral pH.
3. Advanced low pH drainage Additional SO4, As, Mo liberation.
Autooxidation when Fe2+-rich
solution outcrop in oxidizing
environment to Fe3+ and subsequent
hydrolysis = > AMD Fe, SO4-rich
Caracteristics: - all neutralization
potential is consumed. Sulfate
AMD plume and metal (bi- and trivalent)-rich
solutions.
Dold (2014)
 Mining and Environment

Climate

Process Type

Mine-waste type
Waste-dump

Tailings impoundment Sea

Hydrology Tailings
Type of ore deposit deposit

Ground water contamination

Acid Mine Drainage

(AMD)
 Cutoff ore grade

-> crushing-milling-flotation-smelter-electro-winning-tailings

- > Material for “Bioleaching”

-> Waste - dump

Dold & Weibel (2013)

 Cut-off decision making
$$$$$$
Ore
1 wt.% Cu “Bioleaching” Waste-Dump
0.1-0.4 wt.% Cu < 0.1wt.% Cu

Low recovery 5-40% AMD

=> - $ => - $

tailings $$$$$
0.1-0.3 wt.% Cu + 2 wt.% pyrite
$$$
AMD Chalcopyrite
=> - $
Chalcopyrite + covellite
Covellite
AMD plume Pyrite
 Copper Ore Grade Evolution

Cu e.g.Chuquicamta >2 wt.% in oxides to 0.7 wt.% in sulfides

today some mines exploit 0.20 wt.% Cu (Aitik, New Boliden,
Sweden)

Au 1-10g/t now down to 0.1 g/t Au

 Recoveries
Cu flotation today ~80-90% 50a ago ~50-80%
=> Modern tailings = ~0.1 wt.% Cu and old tailings from porphyry
coppers ~0.3 wt.%
Cu “biomining” ~5-40%
Au Small scale (Hg) ~30-50%
Fe magnetic separation ~95%

Additional commodities
Strategic elements and minerals were overlooked in the past:
e.g. REY’s, Li, PGE, Co, rutile, fluorit, fluspat, etc.

 Old mine waste = pollution source = georesource

Critical Elements Global Map
 Size of mine tailings impoundments

Total amount of tailings in Chile:

Actual: 9.250.000.000 t @0.23 wt.% Cu = 21.26Mt Cu
@ 6500 US/t = 138.190.000.000 US$
Permits: 23.000.000.000 t

SERNAGEOMIN 04.2017
Representativity of samples in mine tailings

humid Med arid

0.04 0.2 0.9 oxidation zone = leached zone
0.4 0.6 0.2 enriched zone young ore grade

0.2 0.2 0.2 primary zone

old

=> Surface samples from tailings are NOT representative!

Submarine Tailings Disposal –
The Idea

Dold (2014b)
The Reality in the Sea

(Stramma et al., 2010)

Sand mining: the global environmental crisis
you’ve probably never heard of
From Cambodia to California, industrial-scale sand minin g is causing wildlife to die, local
trade to wither and bridges to collapse. And booming urbanisation means the demand for
this increasingly valuable resource is unlikely to let up

A boat is st randed on t he Poyang Lake in east China, sit e of one of t he world’s biggest sand mines. Phot ograph: Xinhua/ Barcrof t
Images
March 2014 Home Subscribe Archive Contact

Thematic focus: Ecosystem management, Environmental governance, Resource efficiency

Sand, rarer than one thinks

Sand and gravel are mined world-wide and account for the
largest volume of solid material extracted globally. Formed by
erosive processes over thousands of years (John, 2009), they are
now being extracted at a rate far greater than their renewal.
Furthermore, the volume being extracted is having a major

Buh Snarf/Flickr/CC BY NC SA
impact on rivers, deltas and coastal and marine ecosystems
(Figure 1), results in loss of land through river or coastal erosion,
lowering of the water table and decreases in the amount of
sediment supply. Despite the colossal quantities of sand and
gravel being used, our increasing dependence on them and the
significant impact that their extraction has on the environment,
this issue has been mostly ignored by policy makers and remains
largely unknown by the general public.

Why is this issue important?

Globally, between 47 and 59 billion tonnes of material is mined every year (Steinberger et al., 2010), of which
 Concrete contains 2/3 sand.
Sand is after Air and Water the 3rd mostly used resource
15-70 Mrd t/a

Average price for US industrial sand 34.58 US$/ metric t

Price range $8.40 – $143.71(USGS, 2012)
Construction sand has an average price in US of 7.8 (USGS, 2016)
 Basic Mathematics
(-) + (-) = +
minus plus minus equals positive

Environmental Impact Environmental Impact

of Metal Mining of Sand Mining

-Destruction of ecosystems -Free georesource

-Water contamination -Destruction of ecosystems
-Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) -Promotes beach erosion
-Eolic transport
 Key Performance Indicators for Mining

Zero Water

STRIM (Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for the Swedish Mining and Metal Producing Industry, 2013)
 Analytical Approach
SOLIDS:
Optical Microscopy
X-ray diffraction (DXRD)
Automated Quantitative Mineralogy QEMSCAN®
pH - pe (Eh)
Laser-ICP-MS, - pK
Mircoprobe
Synchrotron techniques like µ-XRD
Stable Isotopes
Sequential Extractions
Organic matter & microbiology

WATER:
Dr. Bernhard Dold
Ion chromography,
Centre d‘Analyse Minerale, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland
ICP-MS
E-mail: Bernhard.Dold@unil.ch
Stable Isotopes
Organic compounds
M-1908
Mineral Name
Background
C halcopyrite
Bornite
C halcocite
Tennantite
Pyrite
Sphalerite
Molybdenite
Galena
Other Sulphides
Quartz 18
K-Feldspar 3
Plagioclase/Albite 10
Epidote/Zoisite
Tourmaline 1
Amphiboles
Sericite/Muscovite 1
Biotite 1
Kaolinite
Montmorillonite
Other C lays
C hlorites
Zircon
Fe Oxides/Oxyhydroxides
Rutile
Ilmenite
Titanite/sphene
C alcite/Dolomite/Ankerite
Siderite(Mn)
Gypsum
Other Sulphates
Apatite
Other
 Mineral composition of porphyry coppers
Others

Gypsum
Others
Apatite
Gypsum
100%
Rutile
Apatite
100% Ilmenite
Rutile
90% Alunite/Natroalunite
Ilmenite
90% Cu-Pitch/WAD
Alunite/Natroalunite
80% Other Cu-Sulphides
Cu-Pitch/WAD
80% Bornite
Other Cu-Sulphides
70% Chalcopyrite
Bornite
70% Covellite
Chalcopyrite
in Sample

60% Chalcocite/Digenite
Covellite
Sample

60% Brochantite
Chalcocite/Digenite
50% Chrysocolla
Brochantite
% in%
Weight

50% Other Cu-Oxides

Chrysocolla
40% Fe Oxides/Hydroxides
Weight

Other Cu-Oxides
Molybdenite
40% Fe Oxides/Hydroxides

30% Pyrite
Molybdenite
Smectites
Pyrite
30%
20% Kaolinite
Smectites
Biotite/Phlogopite
Kaolinite
20%
Chlorite
10% Biotite/Phlogopite
Muscovite/Sericite
Chlorite
10%
K-Feldspar
Muscovite/Sericite
0%
1 2 3 4 5 Albite/Plagioclase
K-Feldspar
0% Sample
1 2 3 4 5 Quartz
Albite/Plagioclase
Sample
Quartz
Economics of mine tailings

270 Mt @ 0.35 %Cu with 12 km2 surface

931.500 t Cu @ 6,500 US$/t = 6,05 Mrd US$

269.655 Mt sand @ 8 US$/t = 2,16 Mrd US$
81.655 Mt quartz @ 100 US$/t = 8,10 Mrd US$

+ Saved remediation costs:

1200 ha @ 500.000 US$/ha = 0.6 Mrd US$ ????
+ recovery of Social License
(no waste production and pollution) .......US$???
 In-line separation as standard mining process
Example porphyry copper deposits
Heavy minerals
e.g. cyclon
REE, PGM
1%
Base Metal sulfides
flotation
Cu, Zn, Pb, Mo
1%
Pyrite, phyrrhotite
flotation
ARD, As, Au, Co
2%
Fe-oxides
Magnetite-hematite
Magnetic separation
1%
Silicates
Industrial sands
95 %
 Mineral decision making
Bioleaching
$$$$$$ Ore only leachable minerals and Waste-Dump
1 wt.% Cu Increased T by pyrite addition without reactive minerals
+ smart dump design (e.g sulfides)

5
increased recovery No AMD
=> + $

$$$$$

Desulfurized tailings
$$$$$$
Chalcopyrite
No AMD
Tailings become a product Chalcopyrite + covellite

$$$$ Covellite

Pyrite
 Nucleus of Destruction

Nucleus of sustainable Growth

Sustainable Mine Town Development

Mining

Cement
Architecture
Engineering
 Future Mining in the Andes

Comminution
NO Mine-waste
Only products
Mineral Processing

Type of ore deposit

 Universidad Nacional San Augustin
de Arequipa (UNSA), Peru

Centro International
de Investigación e Innovación Minera Sostenible
(CI3MS)

International Research and Innovation Center

in Sustainable Mining
(CI3MS)

CI3MS
Universidad Nacional San Augustin
de Arequipa (UNSA), Peru
 Universidad Nacional San Augustin
de Arequipa (UNSA), Peru

Property Rio Seco (Pilot Plant)

 Universidad Nacional San Agustin
de Arequipa (UNSA), Peru

Research Capacity Building

for the CI3MS
Peru Sweden
From Peru 15 Ph.D. student in the whole value chain => LTU

1 Ph.D. student costs 100.000€/a = 400.000€

Peru Europe
At least 3 Research Professors specialized in advanced equipment
e.g. ICP-MS, Automated Quantitative Mineralogy
Competitive salaries
Muchas Gracias!

Muchas Gracias!

Bernhard.Dold@ltu.se
 Total Mine 2018?
Exploitation of mine chain waste?
Lulea University of Technology, Sweden

28 – 30 November 2018

Total Food 2017 will be the 5th in a series of international conferences which
focus on the sustainable exploitation of agri-food co-products and related
biomass, thereby helping to minimise waste.
Under the auspices of the Royal Society of Chemistry (Food Group), this three
day event provides an open forum to highlight recent developments and to
facilitate knowledge transfer between representatives of the agri-food
industries, scientific research community, legal experts on food related
legislation and waste management, and consumer organisations.
Themes explored ranged from the adding of value to co-products through to the
recovery of energy from waste streams. http://totalfood2017.com