Assessment of Phosphate Limestone Wastes as a Component of a Store-and-Release Cover in a Semiarid Climate

Abstract

In a semiarid climate where the annual precipitation is low and the evaporation rate is high, contaminated drainage production from mine tailings can be controlled by reducing water infiltration. Store-and-release covers that use capillary barrier effects can prevent water percolation by storage and evaporation (or evapotranspiration) during wet and dry climatic periods. In Morocco, sedimentary phosphate mines are located close to contaminated sites, which includes the abandoned Kettara mine. This mine site generates highly contaminated acid rock drainage (ARD) with negative impacts on its surrounding area. In order to validate if phosphate mine wastes can be used as cover material to reclaim the Kettara site, instrumented test columns were exposed to field conditions and tested for a period of one and a half years. Under natural conditions, more than 94 % of the total net infiltration (246.5 mm) was released to the atmosphere by evaporation. Preliminary tests showed that the studied scenarios can limit deep water infiltration even during extreme simulated rainfall (155 mm/d) and could be used to efficiently control contaminated drainage in a semiarid climate.