Abstract:

The natural weathering of mine tailings in metal sulfide mine areas can generate and release huge amounts of acid mine drainage ( AMD) containing heavy metals and sulfate ions,which may result in serious contamination of local and downstream environment of water and soils. In this paper,the relevant researches completed by the authors and their team are introduced as follows: ( 1) based on the chemical and microbial oxidation mechanisms of the mine tailings,sustained-release bactericides were developed to inhibit microbial oxidation and several passivators such as sodium triethylenetetramine-bisdithiocarbamate were produced to cut off the contact between the tailings and the air,water and microbes so as to inhibit the oxidation of the tailings,thus controlling the release of heavy metals and sulfate ions from the source; ( 2) in view of the fact that the heavy metal and sulfate contamination of the surrounding environment in mine areas is caused mainly by means of water migration,absorbent materials from modified maize straw,peanut shells and rice straw were developed to remove heavy metals and sulfate ions from AMD and a biochemical function material capable of simultaneously removing heavy metals and sulfate ions was built by immobilizing sulfate-reducing bacteria onto modified absorbent materials; and ( 3) a technique by the name of“production simultaneously with remediation”was devised,which adopts the economic crop of corn to remediate contaminated soils,thus realizing soil remediation simultaneously with agricultural production.

Key words: metal sulfide mine area, heavy metal, sulfate, source control, remediation