RT Journal Article
T1 Natural pretreatment and passive remediation of highly polluted acid mine drainage
A1 Macías Suárez, Francisco
A1 Caraballo Monge, Manuel Antonio
A1 Nieto Liñán, José Miguel
A1 Rötting, Tobías S.
A1 Ayora, Carlos
AB Acid mine drainage (AMD) from the Iberian Pyrite Belt has high acidity and metal concentrations. Earlierpilot experiments, based on limestone sand dispersed in wood shavings (dispersed alkaline substrate;DAS) have been shown to be an efficient treatment option. However, complete metal removal was notachieved, principally due to the high ferrous iron concentration in the inflow AMD. In order to oxidizeand remove iron, a natural Fe-oxidizing lagoon (NFOL) was added prior to treatment with limestoneeDAS. The NFOL comprises several pre-existing Fe-stromatolite terraces and cascades, and a lagoonwith a volume of 100 m3 built near the mine shaft. Downstream of the NFOL, the limestoneeDAStreatment consists of two reactive tanks of 3 m3 each filled with limestoneeDAS reactive substrate,connected in series with two decantation ponds of 6 m3 each and several oxidation cascades. The AMDemerging from the mine shaft displayed a pH near 3, a net acidity of 1800 mg/L as CaCO3 equivalents, andmean concentrations of 440 mg/L Zn; 275 mg/L Fe (99% Fe(II)); 3600 mg/L SO4; 250 mg/L Ca; 100 mg/LAl; 15 mg/L Mn; 5 mg/L Cu; and 0.1e1 mg/L As, Pb, Cr, Cd, Co, and Ni. The oxidation induced in the NFOLenhanced ferric iron concentration, showing an average of 65% oxidation and 38% retention during themonitoring period. The whole system removed a mean of 1350 mg/L net acidity as CaCO3 equivalents(71% of inflow); corresponding to 100% of Fe, Al, Cu, Pb and As, and 6% of Zn.
PB Elsevier
SN 0301-4797
YR 2012
FD 2012-04
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23139
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23139
LA eng
NO Macías, F., Caraballo, M. A., Nieto, J. M., Rötting, T. S., & Ayora, C. (2012). Natural pretreatment and passive remediation of highly polluted acid mine drainage. In Journal of Environmental Management (Vol. 104, pp. 93–100). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.03.027
NO This study was funded by the Spanish Government project CGL2010-21956-C02-02. F. Macías was financially supported by the Spanish Government with an FPI PhD fellowship. We thank the analytical assistance of Rafael Carrasco, María José Ruiz and Mari Paz Martin from the Central Research Services of the University of Huelva.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 29 may 2026