Evaluation of methods and models used to predict water quality at hardrock mine sites: Sources of uncertainty and recommendations for improvement

2005 SME Annual Meeting: Got Mining - Preprints

Volumn , Issue , 2005, Pages 689-707

  Maest, Ann ^a   Kuipers, James ^b   Travers, Connie ^c   Atkins, David ^c  

^a Buka Environmental   (United States)

^b Kuipers and Associates   (United States)

^c ABT ASSOCIATES   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 27744514871     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Conference Proceeding    
DOI: None     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (81)

1. Allison, J.D., Brown, D.S., and Novo-Gradac K.J., 1991, MINTEQA2/PRODEFA2, A geochemical assessment model for environmental systems, version 3.0 user's manual. EP A/600/3-91/021. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Environmental Research Laboratory, Athens, GA.
2. th Edition, Edited by Lenore S. Clesceri, Arnold E. Greenberg, and Andrew D. Eaton, Washington, D.C. American Public Health Association, 1220 pp.
3. ASTM, 1988, ASTM Method D 4239-85: Standard test methods for sulfur in the analysis sample of coal and coke using high temperature tube furnace combustion methods. American Society for Testing and Materials, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Sec. 5, v. 05.05, pg. 385-390.
4. ASTM, 1992, Standard Test Method for Shake Extraction of Solid Waste with Water, ASTM D 3987-85 ASTM, West Conshohocken, PA, 4p.
5. ASTM, 1995, ASTM Method E 395-95A: Test method for determination of total sulfur in iron ores and related materials by combustion-iodate titration. American Society for Testing and Materials, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Sec. 3, v. 03.06, pg. 62-64.
6. ASTM, 2003, ASTM method D 5744-96: Standard test method for accelerated weathering of solid materials using a modified humidity cell. Annual book of standards Vol. 11.04, American Society for Testing and Materials. West Conshohocken, PA, p. 259-271.
7. Ball, J.W. and Nordstrom, D.K., 1991, User's manual for WATEQ4F, with revised thermodynamic data base and test cases for calculating speciation of major, trace, and redox elements in natural waters. U.S. Geol. Surv. Open-File Report 91-183, 189 p.
8. Benzaazoua, M., Bussiere, B., and Dagenais, A.M., 2001 Comparison of kinetic tests for sulfide mine tailings. In: Tailings and Mine Waste'01, Balkema, Rotterdam, ISBN 90 5809 182 1. Pg. 263-272.
9. Bethke, 1998. - Geochemist's Workbench.
10. Bicknell, B.R., Imhoff, J.C, Kittle, J.L., Jr., Donigian, A.S., Jr., and Johanson, R.C., 1997, Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran, User's manual for version 11: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Athens, Ga., EPA/600/R-97/080, 755 p.
11. Blowes, D.W., and Jambor, J.L., 1990, The porewater geochemistry and mineralogy of the vadose zone of sulfide tailings, Waite Amulet, Quebec, Canada. Applied Geochemistry, 5:321-346.
12. Bolen, A., 2002, Regulating the unknown: Pit lake policies state by state. Southwest Hydrology, Vol 1 #3, 22-23.
13. Bonazountas, M. and Wagner, J. 1981, 1984. SESOIL: A seasonal soil compartment model. Prepared by Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusettes.
14. Bucknam, C.H., 1997, Net carbonate value (NCV) for acid-base accounting. On Bucknam's personal website- www.bucknam.com/ncv.html
15. Carsel, R.F.; Smith, C.N.; Mulkey, L.A.; Dean, J.D. and P. Jowise. 1984. User's Manual for the Pesticide Root Zone Model (PRZM): Release 1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Research Laboratory, Athens, GA. EPA-600/3-84-109
16. Cole, T. and Wells, S.A., 2001, CE-QUAL-W2: A two-dimensional, laterally-averaged hydrodynamic and water quality model, Version 3.1. Instruction Report EL-2001 U.S. Engineering and Research Development Center, Waterways Experiment Stations, Vickburg, MS.
17. Davis, G.B., and Ritchie, A.I.M, 1986 A model of oxidation in pyritic mine wastes: Part 1. Equations and approximate solution. Applied Mathematical Modeling 10:314-322.
18. Davis, G.B., and Ritchie, A.I.M., 1987, A model of oxidation in pyritic mine wastes: Part 3. Import of particle size distribution. Applied Mathematical Modeling 11:417-422.
19. Davis, G.B., Doherty G., and Ritchie, A.I.M., 1986, A model of oxidation in pyritic mine wastes: Part 2. Comparison of numerical and approximate solution. Applied Mathematical Modeling 10:323-329.
20. Downing, B.W., and Giroux, G., website accessed 2004, ARD waste rock block modeling Infomine, 6pp.
21. Harbaugh, A.W., and McDonald M.G., 1996, User's Documentation for MODFLOW-96, and update to the U.S. Geological Survey modular finite-difference groundwater flow model U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 96D485.
22. Healy, R.W., 1990, Simulation of solute transport in variably saturated porous media with supplemental information on modifications to the U.S. Geological Survey's computer program VS2D. U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 90-4025.
23. Hillebrand, W.F., Lundell, G.E.F., Bright, H.A., and Huffman, J.I., 1953, Applied Inorganic Analysis, 2nd ed. John Wiley and Sons, inc, New York.
24. Infomine, 2004. Website accessed, 2004. http://technology.infomine.com/ hydromine/tools/GWModeling.asp.
25. Jambor, J.L., and Blowes, D.W., 1994, Mineralogical Association of Canada Short Course on Environmental Geochemistry of Sulfide Mine-Wastes, Vol. 22, Mineralogical Society of Canada.
26. Jambor, J.L., Blowes, D.W., Ritchie, A., (Eds) 2003, Environmental Aspects of Mine Wastes. Mineralogical Association of Canada, Short Course Series, Vol. 31.
27. Kempton, H., and Atkins, D., 2000, Delayed environmental impacts from mining in semi-arid climates. Proceedings from the Fifth International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, ICARD 2000, Volume 1. Published by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc. (www.smenet.org), May 21-24, 2000, Denver, Colorado, pg. 1299-1308
28. Kharaka, Y.K., Gunter, W.D., Aggarwal, P.K., Hull, R.W., and Perkins, E.H., 1988, SOLMINEQ.88: A computer program code for geochemical modeling of water-rock interactions U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources investigations Report 88-4227, 420 p.
29. Kuipers, J., Maest, A., MacHardy, K., and Lawson, G. 2005. Evaluation of the NEPA process for estimating water quality impacts at hardrock mine sites. Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, February.
30. Kuo, E.Y., and Ritchie, A.I.M., 1999, The impact of convection on the overall oxidation rate in sulfide waste rock dumps. In Proceedings Mining and Environment II 1999, Paper presented at the Sudbury'99 Conference, Proceedings Volume 1, pp. 211-220, September 13-17, 1999, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
31. Lapakko, K.A., 2003, Developments in Humidity-Cell Tests and Their Application. Chap 7 in Jambor, Blowes and Ritchie, eds., 2003. Environmental Aspects of Mine Wastes, MAC, Short Course vol. 31, p. 147-164.
32. Lappala, E.G., Healy, R.W., and Weeks, E.P., 1987, Documentation of computer program VS2D to solve the equations of fluid flow in variably saturated porous media. U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 83-4099.
33. Lawrence, R.W., and Day, S., 1997, Chemical prediction techniques for ARD. In: Fourth International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, Short Course #2. Vancouver, BC, 31 May - 6 June
34. Lefebvre, R., and Gelinas, J., 1995, Paper presented at the Sudbury'95 Conference, Proceedings Volume 3, pp. 869-878, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
35. Lefebvre, R., Hockley, D., Smolensky, J., and Gelinas, P., 2001, Multiphase transfer processes in waste rock piles producing acid mine drainage, 1. Conceptual model and system conceptualization. J. Contam. Hydrol. 52, p. 137-164.
36. Lefebvre, R., Lamontagne, A. Wels, C., and Robertson, A. MacG., 2002, In: Tailings and Mine Waste'02, pp. 479-488. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tailings amd Mine Waste, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, 27-30 January 2002.
37. Li, M.G., 2000, Acid rock drainage prediction for low-sulphide, low-neutralisation potential mine wastes. Proceedings from the Fifth International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, ICARD 2000, p. 567-580. Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc.
38. Mayer, K.U., Frind, E.G., and Blowes, D.W., 2002, A numerical model for the investigation of reactive transport in variably saturated media using a generalized formulation for kinetically controlled reactions. Water Resources Research #38.
39. McDonald, M.G., and Harbaugh, A.W., 1988, A modular three-dimensional finite-difference ground-water flow model. U.S. Geological Survey Techniques of Water Resources Investigations, Book 6, Chapter A1.
40. MEND, 1994, SOILCOVER: User's Manual for an evaporative flux model, MEND 1.25.1 Canadian Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology, Mine Environment Neutral Drainage Program.
41. Miller, S., Robertson, A., and Donohue, T., 1997, Advances in Acid Drainage Prediction Using the Net Acid Generation (NAG) Test. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, Vancouver, May 31-June 6, 1997, II, 535-549.
42. Mills, C., 2004a, Acid Base Accounting (ABA). Infomine, 16pp. website accessed 2004.
43. Mills, C., 2004b, Acid Base Accounting (ABA) Test Procedures. Infomine, 17pp. website accessed 2004.
44. Mills, C., 2004c, Metal leaching test procedures. Infomine, 12pp. website accessed 2004.
45. Mills, C., 2004d, Particle size distribution and liberation size. Infomine, 10pp. website accessed 2004.
46. Morin, K.A., and N.M. Hutt. 1997. Environmental Geochemistry ofMinesite Drainage: Practical Theory and Case Studies. MD AG Publishing (www.mdag.com), Vancouver, British Columbia. ISBN: 0-9682039-0-6.
47. Morin, K.A. and Hutt, N.M., 2004, The Minewall Approach for estimating the geochemical effects of mine walls on pit lakes. Presented at: Pit Lakes 2004; United States Environmental Protection Agency; Reno, Nevada; November 16-18, 2004, 19 p.
48. Nevada Mining Association, 1996, Meteoric Water Mobility procedure (MWMP), Standarized column percolation test procedure. Nevada Mining Association, Reno, NV, 5p.
49. Newbrough, P. and Gammons, C.H., 2002. An experimental study of water-rock interaction and acid rock drainage in the Butte mining district, Montana. Environmental Geology, Vol 41:705-719.
50. Nicholson, R.V. and Rinker, M.J., 2000, Metal leaching from sulphide mine waste under neutral pH conditions. Proceedings from the Fifth International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, ICARD 2000, p. 951-957.
51. Nicholson, R.V., Eberling, B. and Williams, G. 1995. A new oxygen consumption technique to provide rapid assessment of tailings reactivity in the field and the laboratory. In: Proc. Conf. On Mining and the Environment. T. Hynes and M. Blanchette (eds.). pp. 999-1006.
52. Pantelis, G., 1993, FIDHELM: Description of model and users guide, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization Report ANSTO/M123.
53. Pantelis, G., and Ritchie, A.I.M., 1991, Macroscopic transport mechanisms as rate-limiting factor in dump leaching of pyritic ores. Applied Mathemitical Modeling, 15:136-143.
54. Parkhurst, D.L., 1995, User's guide to PHREEQC - A computer program for speciation, reaction-path, advective-transport, and inverse geochemical calculations. U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 95-4227, 143 p.
55. Plumlee, G.S., 1999, The environmental geology of mineral deposits. Chapter 3 In: The Environmental Geochemistry of Mineral Deposits, G.S. Plumlee and M.J. Logsdon, eds., Rev. Econ. Geol. V 6A, Soc. Geol. Inc., Littleton, CO, 71-116
56. Plummer, N.L. and Parkhurst, D.J., 1990, Application of the Pitzer equation to the PHREEQE geochemical model. In: Melchoir, D.C. and Bassett, R.L., eds., Chemical Modeling of Aqueous Systems II: ACS Symposium Series 416, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC. Pg. 128-137.
57. Price, W.A., 1997, Draft Guidelines and Recommended Methods for the Prediction of Metal Leaching and Acid Rock Drainage at Minesites in British Columbia. Reclamation Section, Energy and Minerals Division, Ministry of Employment and Investment, Smithers, B.C. Canada.
58. Province of British Columbia, 1992, Waste Management Act: Special Waste Regulation Schedule 4, Parts 1 and 2, Queen's Printer, Victoria, BC, p. 72-79.
59. Ritchie, A.I.M., 1994, Rates of mechanisms that govern pollutant generation from pyritic wastes. Environmental geochemistry of sulfide oxidation. ACS Symposium Series 550. American Chemical Society. Alpers and Blowes, eds. (book is out of stock at Oxford Press)
60. Saaltink, M.W., Domenech, C., Ayora, C., and Carrera, J., 2002, Modeling the oxidation of sulfides in an unsaturated soil. In: Mine Water Hydrogeology and Geochemistry. P.L. Younger and N.S. Robins (eds). Geological Society of London Special Publication, 198. pg. 187-205.
61. Scharer, J.M., Bolduc, L., Pettit, C.M., and Halbert, B.E., 2000b, Limitations of acid-base accounting for predicting acid rock drainage Proceedings from the Fifth International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, ICARD 2000 Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc., p. 591-601.
62. Schecher, W.D. and McAvoy, D.C., 1991, MINEQL+ - A chemical equilibrium program for personal computers, User's manual, version 2.1: Proctor and Gamble Company, Cincinnati, Ohio.
63. Schroeder, P.R., Aziz, N.M., Lloyd, C.M., and Zappi, P.A., 1994a, The Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) Model: User's Guide for Version 3. EP A/600/9-94/168a. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Washington D.C.
64. Schroeder, P.R., Dozier, T.S., Zappi, P.A., McEnroe, B.M., Sjostrom, J.W., and Peyton, R.L., 1994b, The Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) Model: Engineering documentation for Version 3.0. EP A/600/9-94/168b. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Washington D.C.
65. Shaw, S., and Mills, C., website accessed 2004, Petrology and mineralogy in ARD prediction Infomine, 9pp.
66. Simunek, J., M. Sejna, and M. Th. van Genuchten. 1998. The HYDRUS-1D software package for simulating the one-dimensional movement of water, heat, and multiple solutes in variably-saturated media. Version 2.0, IGWMC - TPS - 70, International Ground Water Modeling Center, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, 202pp.
67. Sobek, A.A., Schuller, W.A., Freeman, J.R., and Smith, R.M., 1978, Field and Laboratory Methods Applicable to Overburdens and Minesoils. EPA-600/2-78-054, p.p. 47-50.
68. nd Ed. Volume 1, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc., Littleton, CO p. 205, 281-386.
69. Steefel, C.I., 2000, New directions in hydrogeochemical transport modeling: Incorporating multiple kinetic and equilibrium reaction pathways. In: Computational Methods in Water Resources XIII (L.R. Bentley, J.F. Sykes, C.A. Brebbia, W.G. Gray and G.F. Finder, eds.). A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, p. 331-338.
70. Stewart, W., Miller, S., Thomas, J.E., and Smart R., 2003b, Evaluation of the Effects of Organic Matter on the Net Acid Generation (NAG) Test. In: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Acid Rock drainage (ICARD), Cairns, 12-18th July 2003, 211-222.
71. Tessier, A., Campbell, P.G.C. and Bisson, M. 1979. Sequential extraction procedure for the speciation of particulate trace metals. Anal. Chem., 51, 844-851.
72. Tremblay, G.A., and Hogan, C.M., 2000, MEND Manual Volume 3 - Prediction MEND 5.4.2c Canadian Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology.
73. U.S. ACOE. 2000. Hydrologic Modeling System HEC-HMS, Technical Reference Manual. Prepared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Davis, CA.
74. U.S. EPA, 2004, Website accessed 2004: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non- hw/industd/guide.htm
75. U.S. EPA, 1996, Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste - Physical/Chemical Methods (SW-846). U.S. EPA, Washington, DC.
76. U.S. EPA, 2003a. Pesticide Root Zone Model, PRZM Version 3.12.1. http://www.epa.gov/ceampubl/gwater/przm3/
77. U.S. EPA. 2003b. CHEMFLO-2000, Interactive software for simulating water and chemical movement in unsaturated soils. EPA/600/R-03/008. Prepared by D.L. Nofziger and J. Wu at Oklahoma State University for Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cinncinnati, OH.
78. White, W.W., Lapakko, K.A., and Cox, R.L., 1999, Static-test methods most commonly used to predict acid-mine drainage: Practical guidelines for use and interpretation. In: Reviews in Economic Geology, Volume 6A, The Environmental Geochemistry of Mineral Deposits. Part A: Processes, Techniques, and Health Issues. Plumlee, G.S. and Logsdon, M.J., eds. P. 325-338.
79. Wolery, T.J., and Daveler, S.A., 1992, EQ6, a computer program for reaction path modeling of aqueous geochemical systems: Theoretical manual, user's guide and related documentation (Version 7.0). Energy Science and Technology Software Center, Oak Ridge, TN.
80. Wunderly, M.D., Blowes, D.W., Frind, E.O., Ptacek, C.J., and Al., T.A., 1995, A multicomponent reactive transport model incorporating kinetically controlled pyrite oxidation. In: Proc. Conf. On Mining and Environment. T. Hynes and M. Blanchette (eds.)
81. Xu, T., Sonnenthal, E., Spycher, N., Pruess, K., Brimhall, G., and Apps, J., 2001, Modeling multiphase non-isothermal fluid flow and reactive geochemical transport in variably saturated fractured rocks: 2. Applications to supergene copper enrichment and hydrothermal flows. American Journal of Science, v. 301, p. 34-59.