Acid Mine Drainage Treatment by Potential Carbon Mineralization: A Step Toward a Circular Economy

Abstract

Acid Mine drainage is produced mainly from the two sources such as mineral and mining industries and there are a factors to enhance the AMD formation: i) atmospheric moisture, ii) pH, iii)temperature, and iv) surface area of sulfide minerals exposed to the oxygen. Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is formed with the outflow of extremely acidic water from the mine dumps or abandoned mine sites, which contains the dissolved heavy metals such as Copper (Cu), Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg), Nickel (Ni), Arsenic (As), Cobalt (Co), Cadmium (Cd), and other some common metals are Manganese (Mn), Iron (Fe), and Zinc (Zn). AMD is a major pollutant that causes a severe threat to the aquatic and ecosystem. There are a few major issues associated with this AMD including contamination of drinking water, lowering the reproduction growth rate of plants and aquatic animals, etc. In this paper, we discussed a new technical solution carbon mineralization technology for the treatment of acid mine drainage, and also promoting the possible circular economy was proposed. A carbon mineralization technology was studied for the stabilization of heavy metals in soil and ashes as well as hardness removal of water. The proposed carbon mineralization is an alternative technical solution for the treatment of AMD which leads the AMD wastewater to be a resource to achieve a circular economy.