Site-Specific Study on Stabilization of Acid-Generating Mine Tailings Using Coal Fly Ash

A site-specific study on stabilizing acid-generating mine tailings from Sudbury Mine using a coal fly ash from Nanticoke Generating Station is presented in this paper. The objective of the study is to evaluate the feasibility of codisposal of the fly ash and mine tailings to reduce environmental impacts of Sudbury tailings disposal sites. The study includes three phases, i.e., characterization of the mine tailings, and coal fly ash, oxidation tests on the mine tailings and kinetic column permeation tests. The results of the experiments indicate that when permeated with acid mine drainage, the hydraulic conductivity of Nanticoke coal fly ash decreased more than three orders of magnitude (from 1× 10−6 to 1× 10−9 cm∕s ), mainly due to chemical reactions between the ash solids and acid mine drainage. Furthermore, the hydraulic gradient required for acid mine drainage to break through the coal fly ash is increased up to ten times (from 17 to 150) as compared with that for water. The results also show that the ...