Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/K007017/1
Living with Mine Waste: Developing a Decision-making Tool for Reducing Water Contamination Risk
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Professor K Hudson-Edwards, Birkbeck College, Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Grant held at:
- Birkbeck College, Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Science Area:
- Freshwater
- Overall Classification:
- Freshwater
- ENRIs:
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Natural Resource Management
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- Throughout the world, the weathering of solid mine wastes contaminates waters with potentially toxic components, such as arsenic and lead, in concentrations that may pose serious hazards to human health if they are released to waters used for drinking, cooking and irrigation. Many people live beside or near active or abandoned mine wastes, and thus are exposed daily to such hazards. These risks can be mitigated by remediation to either remove the wastes entirely or render them less harmful so they do not release the potentially toxic components to waters. As such schemes can be very expensive, it is desirable to prioritise remediation tasks in areas with multiple mine wastes. Bolivia is a typical affected country as it has a large and long mining legacy, which has produced vast amounts of mine wastes dating back several 100 years. The CASE Partner, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), has been working in Bolivia to protect local people from the effects of, and develop policy on managing, mine wastes. The Research Partner Universidad Tecnica de Oruru (UTO) is developing a decision-making tool for prioritizing mine waste remediation on the Bolivian Altiplano, where water resources are limited and stressed. The student will work with CAFOD and UTO to build on previous research by the principal supervisor at Birkbeck on the processes and products of mine waste weathering to develop a reactivity index. This will measure the magnitudes of, and controls on the, release of toxic components from solid mine wastes to waters, and will be added to UTO's decision-making tool. The tool can then be promoted and used by CAFOD and its partners to improve the health and lives of Bolivians and people in other Latin American countries with which they work. The tool may also serve as a template for global mine waste risk assessment in countries such as the UK, which also has a significant mine waste legacy. The PhD project falls directly under NERC's priority area 'Environment, pollution and human health' and will answer the questions: What are the controls on the release of contaminants from solid mine wastes to waters? What is the relative reactivity of different mine wastes? How can this relative reactivity be incorporated into a decision-making tool that can be used by affected groups? These questions will be answered by (a) collecting samples of solid mine wastes and waters draining them; (b) characterising the mineralogy of the mine wastes (using state-of-the-art environmental geochemistry and mineralogy techniques); (c) determining magnitudes of, and controls on the, release of toxic components from the mine wastes to waters (using batch experiments in fluids characteristic of environments affected by mine wastes); (d) developing an index of relative mine waste reactivity (using the results from (b) and (c), and geochemical modeling, and working with UTO to incorporate this into their decision-making tool); (e) disseminating the results and applications of the research through knowledge transfer (KT) with CAFOD and its partners, in order to raise awareness and develop policy and responsible practice around mine waste-water issues, and to assist communities to manage the exposure of their water to such waste. Extensive KT will also be carried out in the UK and wider international community with the UCL supervisor and his wide links with government and non-government agencies. The student will receive training in research management, methods of water and sediment sample collection and preservation, geochemical and mineralogical analysis of waters and solids, thermodynamic modelling, KT, Spanish, methods of disaster risk reduction, integrated water resource management, and application of research with partners. The decision-making tool and new knowledge on the mineralogy and reactivity of mine wastes will help to design better global remediation schemes, and contribute to research on mine wastes and environmental protection.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/K007017/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- DTG - directed
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Open CASE
This training grant award has a total value of £80,576
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Fees | Total - RTSG | Total - Student Stipend |
|---|---|---|
| £13,978 | £10,405 | £56,193 |
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