Bioremediation of mine area groundwater inorganic contamination (BioMAGIC): final report / Prepared for Boojum Research Ltd.

Abstract

The occurrence of metal-contaminated acid mine drainage (AMO) is one of the most problematic situations facing the mining industry today (Hutchinson and Ellison 1992; Ledin and Pedersen 1996). Sources of AMO include the walls of underground and open pit mining sites, waste rock and ore stock piles, tailings waste, and spent heap leach piles from leaching operations. If left uncontrolled and untreated, AMO has the potential to contaminate surface and groundwater broadly enough to adversely affect regional water quality, as well as indigenous fish and wildlife populations (Hutchinson and Ellison 1992; Orabkowski 1993).