Maxi-Acid{trademark}: In-situ amelioration of acid mine drainage problems. Topical report, February 1, 1995--February 1, 1996

The development of technologies to ameliorate acid mine drainage problems has had few successes. Most often, once acid mine drainage exists, the company responsible develops treatment programs to make sure that water resources and land are not contaminated by the acid mine drainage. These treatments usually result in significant costs and do not result in a cure to the problem. Much effort and money has been spent on the problems associated with acid mine drainage. However, it appears that most of the meaningful breakthroughs have come in the area of treatment of the results of the problem (i.e. water treatment). There have been few breakthroughs in the prevention of acid formation. Most of the work associated with the prevention of acid formation has dealt with the prevention of oxidation using grouting to seal mines, removing oxygen from the system or preventing water flow into the mines, using bactericides to eliminate the catalytic effect of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, and modifying the mining methods. The Maxi-Acid{trademark} technology takes a different approach to the problem. A site treated using Maxi-Acid won`t be expected to generate acid mine drainage for a number of years, if ever. The application of Maxi-Acid is expected to eliminate continuous treatment of acid waters discharged from applicable mine sites. The work accomplished to date includes characterization of overburden materials that contain large quantities of potential acidity, and preliminary evaluations of the acid-generating capabilities of materials containing high levels of potential acidity (pyritic materials) using humidity cells. This research effort is in the preliminary stages. To date, a number of interesting findings have been made that could be used to contribute to the elimination of acid mine drainage. However, the concepts that are expected to have the most significant impact on the formation of acid mine drainage have not yet been substantiated