Mining environmental research projects in progress around Australia and internationally.  

Centre for Mining Environmental Research projects – status summary

ACMER has published details of current research projects; summarized here with follow-up ‘stage 2’ work being proposed (and thus requiring sponsorship):

Contact ACMER: +61(7) 33274555 or c.bell@mailbox.uq.edu au or www.acmer.com.au.

Research projects at Centre for Mined Land Research, University of Queensland

Current projects at CMLR, undertaken mainly for the Coal Association Research Program (ACARP), include some of wider application:

CMLR contact is Director Dr David Mulligan, 07-3365 3457, cmlr@cmlr.uq.edu.au .

Recent mining/environment projects at Minerals Industry Research Association (AMIRA)

Recent mining/environment projects at AMIRA:

Projects recently under development include:

AMIRA is not itself a research body, but administers funding and project control on behalf of industry sponsors. Contact Tony Bagshaw, AMIRA Perth, 08-9324 1090 or tbagshaw@amira.com.au

Contact MERIWA at www.dme.wa.gov.au/meriwa/ or through david.milton@mpr.wa.gov.au.

Mar 2001 MERIWA scholarship winner – project on arid zone ecology

Minerals and Energy Research Institute of Western Australia has awarded the special one-time-only ‘Joe Lord Memorial Scholarship’ to Alisdair Grigg of The University of WA for a project entitled: "Arid Zone mine site revegetation ecology and eco-physiology: a case study in the Great Sandy Desert". The project is sponsored by Normandy Mining and other WA operating companies

Tailings – new ideas for better emplacement

 Nov 2001        New dry stacking, ‘paste’ and ‘foam’ technologies for tailings disposal

 The costs for final rehabilitation of tailings dams have risen sharply;  for example one large dam at Elliot Lake, Canada, has cost over C$100 million to rehabilitate [presumably the Elliot Lake uranium mine tailings, which could be considered a special case].

 There is a trend now to dry stacking or thickened tailings disposal, which involves densification of tailings, usually using a high rate thickener, to produce near homogenous material with some self-supporting capacity.  The potential advantages (over conventional unthickened tailings disposal) are said to be:

• Placed tailings consolidate much more quickly and the chance of liquefaction is reduced;
  
  
• A settling pond is not needed;
  
  
• Reduced water in tailings reduces seepage and pollution potential;
  
  
• Water recovery is higher and could become essential in dry areas;
  
  
• More process reagents can be recovered at the process plant [and the decay/loss of cyanide would be lower?];  and
  
  
• Rehabilitation can be concurrent with the stack operation.

The method was first used successfully at Kidd Creek mine, Canada, and is now in use at the Ekati diamond mine, Canada, the Kubaka gold mine, Russia and at Hindustan Copper, India.

 The Centre for Geomechanics (ACG) has led recent seminars in Canada, Australia and South Africa on the use of paste technologies for both transporting and depositing thickened mine tailings, including underground disposal of total tailings (not just classified {cycloned} sand fractions).  Paste technology uses total tailings dewatered to a very high density.  Examples of use include the system at the new Bulyanhulu mine, Tanzania and at Richards Bay, South Africa.

 Above ground, paste technology is said to reduce land and water requirements, generation of acid water and demand for chemicals/reagents, to reduce costs by eliminating or delaying raising dam walls and to facilitate final rehabilitation.  Paste has some advantages over classified tailings underground related to reduced post-fill shrinkage, reduced binder consumption and almost total elimination of water underground, since water used to transport paste is hydrated by a binder – some 30 mines have adopted paste backfill since 1994.

 A ‘Guidance and advice’ handbook on paste technology is being drafted by ACG and the second/revised draft will be available shortly.  The next meetings are in Chile in Apr 2002 and Melbourne, Australia in 2004.  Contact Prof. Richard Jewell, ACG, tel: +61-(0)8-9380 3300, or e-mail: acg@acg.uwa.edu.au or see www.acg.uwa.edu.au.

 An additional, but relatively untested technology is ‘foam’ technology, in which micro air bubbles replace water as the transport medium.  Air can be removed after placement if necessary by addition of a de-foaming reagent, which produces under-saturated stable ‘cake’.  It is suggested that foam technology could also benefit dry stacking, by reducing transport costs and producing any desired final beach angle by adjusting the dosage of de-foamer at the discharge nozzle(s).  Likewise foam technology used with paste underground may produce backfill with the benefits of both paste and hydraulic fill, because foam produces ‘pseudo’ low density slurry. – [Mining Magazine, ACG News]

Frogs – a serious decline in numbers world-wide

Feb 2001 Fatal fungal disease is decimating frogs – funding research into ‘cures’

The media has drawn attention to a marked decline in frogs world-wide, even in pristine mountain rainforest environments. Rio Tinto Ltd received coverage for donating funding into research into the causes of the decline.

The Australian government’s ‘Natural Heritage Trust’ allocated $1.4 million for frog recovery projects between 1996–2000 through the ‘Endangered Species Program’ and has recently published a progress report identifying the fungal disease Chytrid as an emerging cause of the decline. The disease has been nominated as a ‘Key Threatening Process’ under national legislation.

The fungus, which invades the keratin layer in frogs’ skin, is believed to be a major factor in the extinction of 6 Australian species and in dramatically reduced populations of many others (at the same time as frogs face the cane toad onslaught). It has also been identified as a cause of mass mortalities in USA, Panama, New Zealand and Spain.

A number of research projects are now under way in Australian institutions (which the Natural Heritage Trust lists) - contact e-mail: aahl@li.csiro.au or web site: http://www.biodiversity.environment.gov.au/threaten/information/frogs/frogs.pdf to see the report.

Mar 2000 Rio Tinto Ltd sponsors World Wildlife Fund amphibian project

WWF announced its ‘Frogs!’ project, to be funded by $A1.2 million from Rio Tinto under Rio’s ’Business with Communities’ program. The aim is to fund a nationally coordinated approach to research, education and conservation to implement the Australian Government’s ‘Action Plan for Australian Frogs’. The Plan and the Project are in response to world-wide concerns about the recent rapid (and accelerating) decline in populations of frogs and other amphibians.