Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine, one of the well known porphyry copper deposits, is located in 55 km south of Rafsanjan, south-eastern Iran. Metalliferrous deposit mining, prepare proper conditions for oxidation of sulphide minerals and acid mine drainage will be produced easily by chemical reactions between metal sulphides and water, with the presence of air. Investigations on impact of waste dumps on producing acid mine drainage at Sarcheshmeh copper mine shows decreased pH up to 3-5.5 in acid drainages with the presence of some dissolved toxic and heavy metals higher than permitted standard limits (WHO). In such degraded water and improper environment for aquatic life, just some of microorganisms are able to survive. At Sarcheshmeh copper mine in some of acidic drainages which maintain high dissolved elements, an acid tolerant alga recognized. The genus of this filamentous green alga is Ulothrix and species is Ulothrix gigas without antimicrobial and antifungal properties. The alga is observed in the drainages with high dissolved solids (TDS»1800mg/l). It seems pH values, type of dissolved elements and secondary minerals formed on the substrate, are important factors in distribution of Ulothrix. This research shows the most prolific and densely populated communities occur in effluent with the pH 3-4.5. The colloidal conditions and presence of suspended Iron and Aluminium prevent growth or reproduction of them. Sampling and chemical analysis of algae show elevated absorption of heavy metals. Therefore the presence of this alga is a factor to remove heavy metals from acid mine drainage naturally and improve the water quality.

High concentration of sulfate in acid mine drainage is one of a chemical pollutants which can cause various health problems and damage the wastewater piping systems if not enough attention is given to its removal. In this research, adsorption process was selected as an effective, simple and low-cost method for sulfate removal. The modification of clay minerals as a natural and eco-friendly adsorbent is very useful for improving their properties along with permanent porosity. In recent years, pillared clay has been received much attention. In this study, the structural properties of Al, Fe-pillared nano bentonite is improved by using the combined ultrasonic wave and microwave irradiation technology. In this adsorbent, the synthetic duration time and water consumtion are reduced and the number of active sites are increased. Therefore, an effective adsorbent is produced with high absorption capacity compared to the initial bentonite sample. In this study, the thermodynamic parameters was calculated by examining the effect of temperature, while the adsorption data are fitted by Freundlich, Langmuir and Temkin isotherm models. The thermodynamic results showed that the adsorption process for both initial and pillared bentonite were exothermic and spontaneous. Second-order kinetic models and intra-particle diffusion model demonstrated that the main adsorption mechanism was chemical absorption with penetration into the absorbent porous media, especially in the pillared sample.

The release of heavy metals from functional mines can result in significant environmental pollution, posing a threat to both soil and water quality. Therefore, it is crucial to characterize the chemical and physical properties of mine tailings to assess the potential risk of toxic heavy metal mobility in the environment. In this study, the chemical forms of Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in the tailings of Draa Sfar mine in Marrakech (Morocco) were investigated using standard sequential extraction and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric techniques. Results indicate that mining residues exhibit a highly acidic pH (2.9), low carbonate content (0.5%), and high electrical conductivity (7.2 mS/cm) due to significant soluble salts, particularly sulfates (3.7%). Assessing metal speciation indicated Cd's high availability in short-term mobile fractions (42%), while Cu primarily associated with soluble and exchangeable fractions (32%). Pb showed strong association with long-term mobile fractions (61%), and Zn displayed an equal distribution among mobile and lithogenic fractions. Acid-base accounting test results reveal a lower Neutralization Potential (196.4t CaCO3/kt) compared to Acid Potential (306.3t CaCO3/kt), indicating a negative Net Neutralization Potential and suggesting potential acid mine drainage. This result demonstrates that DraaSfar mining residues possess a lower acid-consuming capacity, primarily driven by their carbonate content, compared to their acid-generating capacity. This finding indicates that these mining residues have the potential to become sources of acid mine drainage, and underscore the importance of implementing sustainable mining practices and mitigation strategies to reduce environmental impact.

Acid mine drainage (AMD) containing high concentrations of iron and sulphate, low pH and variable concentrations of heavy metals leads to many environmental problems. The concentrations of Cu and Mn are high in the AMD of the Sarcheshmeh porphyry copper mine, Kerman province, south of Iran. In this study, the bio-remediation of Cu and Mn ions from acid mine drainage was investigated using two native fungi called Aspergillus niger and Phanerochaete chrysosporium which were extracted from the soil and sediment samples of the Shour River at the Sarcheshmeh mine. The live fungi was first harvested and then killed by boiling in 0.5 N NaOH solution. The biomass was finally dried at 60o C for 24 h and powdered. The optimum biosorption parameters including pH, temperature, the amount of biosorbent and contact time were determined in a batch system. The optimum pH varied between 5 and 6. It was found that the biosorption process increased with an increase in temperature and the amount of biosorbent.Biosorption data were attempted by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models and showed a good match.Kinetic studies were also carried out in the present study. The results show that the second-order kinetics model fits well the experimental data. The biosorption experiments were further investigated with a continuous system to compare the biosorption capacities of two systems. The results show that biosorption process using a continuous system increases efficiency up to 99%. A desorption process was eventually performed in order to recover Copper and Manganese ions. This process was successful and fungi could be used again.

This work presents a quantitative predicting likely acid mine drainage (AMD) generation process throughout tailing particles resulting from the Sarcheshmeh copper mine in the south of Iran. Indeed, four predictive relationships for the remaining pyrite fraction, remaining chalcopyrite fraction, sulfate concentration, and pH have been suggested by applying the gene expression programming (GEP) algorithms. For this, after gathering an appropriate database, some of the most significant parameters such as the tailing particle depths, initial remaining pyrite and chalcopyrite fractions, and concentrations of bicarbonate, nitrite, nitrate, and chloride are considered as the input data. Then 30% of the data is chosen as the training data randomly, while the validation data is included in 70% of the dataset. Subsequently, the relationships are proposed using GEP. The high values of correlation coefficients (0. 92, 0. 91, 0. 86, and 0. 89) as well as the low values of RMS errors (0. 140, 0. 014, 150. 301, and 0. 543) for the remaining pyrite fraction, remaining chalcopyrite fraction, sulfate concentration, and pH prove that these relationships can be successfully validated. The results obtained also reveal that GEP can be applied as a new-fangled method in order to predict the AMD generation process.

The present study involved the assessment of potential generation of acid drainage from a coal mining area in India. Laboratory-based static and kinetic tests on overburden samples were conducted. Results of the static tests using acid base accounting indicate that all samples may be acid generators, and their generation capacity varied between likely, possible and low. To verify the acid generation potentiality of those samples showing a high acid drainage production in the static test, the kinetic test, using humidity cell, was conducted for a period of 15 weeks. The samples were leached with simulated rain water to mimic the chemical weathering under controlled laboratory conditions and imitate actual mine site leaching. Data obtained from chemical analysis of collected leachate were used to estimate production and reaction rates of acid generation and neutralizing capacity. Based on the kinetic test, it can be concluded that presently the neutralizing capacity of the samples is better than the oxidation capacity (acid generation). But due to the high weathering rate of carbonates, as reflected by the simulated leaching test, the neutralizing materials (carbonates) will eventually be exhausted earlier (since they showed dissolution rate) than the acid generation species (sulfates). Thus, acid drainage production is predicted from that point of time, when the neutralizing capacity has been exhausted for these mine sites.