The legacy of mining continues to affect stream water quality throughout the western United States. Traditional remediation, involving treatment of acid mine drainage from portals, is not feasible for the thousands of abandoned mines in the West as it is difficult and expensive. Thus, the development of new methods to address acid mine drainage is critical. The purpose of this study was two fol...

Tree water uptake relies on well-developed root systems. However, mine wastes can restrict root growth, in particular metalliferous mill tailings, which consist of the finely crushed ore that remains after valuable metals are removed. Thus, water stress could limit plantation success in reclaimed mine lands. This study evaluates the effect of substrates varying in quality (topsoil, overburden, ...

We apply rule induction to mine for knowledge in a database which stores data obtained by monitoring the water quality of the rivers in Slovenia. The database contains measurement data about the physical and chemical properties of the water at different measurement sites, as well as data about the presence of living organisms. Taken together, the above data reflect the quality of the water: the...

Short-term production plans are the basis for operational mine production schedules. They concentrate on making long-term mine plans operationally feasible. Furthermore, some variables such as ore grade and tonnage govern mine production systems and cause uncertainty in the supply of raw materials to the mills. Due to the quality variation of material, short-term production optimization is an u...

Historic mine sites are a major source of contamination to terrestrial and river environments. To demonstrate the importance of determining the significance of point and diffuse metal contamination and the related bioavailability of the metals present from abandoned mines a case study has been carried out. The study provides a quantitative assessment of a historic mine site, Wheal Betsy, southw...

Precipitation-induced runoff from historical mine-waste located adjacent to the headwaters of the Snake River, Deer Creek, Saints John Creek, Grizzly Gulch, Stevens Gulch, and Leavenworth Creek contributes to the degradation of water quality in these streams. Because historical mine-waste piles have had long-term exposure to the atmosphere, it is surmised that runoff from these piles, induced b...

The processes of coagulation and flocculation using high molecular weight long-chain polymers were applied to treat mine water having fine flocs of which about 93% of the total mass was less than 3.02 microm, representing the size distribution of fine particles. Six different combinations of acryl-type anionic flocculants and polyamine-type cationic coagulants were selected to conduct kinetic t...

A survey to locate all potential pollution sources in a watershed can be overwhelming in terms of the commitment of capital, equipment, and manpower. For this reason, alternative methods were sought that could lessen the time and cost of these initial watershed surveys. In this paper, airborne thermal infrared (TIR) imaging and geophysical techniques, such as electromagnetic conductivity and ve...