Mine waste & circular economy

Abstract The effluent discharge from mining cause’s serious environmental pollution such as acid mine drainage which in turn spoil the surface and ground water quality. This impact is not only restricted to water but directly/indirectly affect the flora, fauna, land topography and socio-economic of the local inhabitants. In mining sector, liquid wastes are sent to tailing ponds and solid are dumped as waste rocks piles that contain metal of desired interest. They vary greatly in respect to their physical, chemical mineralogical compositions and concentrations. Due to metal content, either by chemical/biological processes, they has becomes the principal cause for the production of acid mine drainage. Utilization of scientific knowledge & use of appropriate technologies for their recoveries is quit challenging and requires a substantial amount of revenue. Several processes are employed over past decade to create products that have market value whereby the industry could off-set the treatment cost. To achieve so, development of an integrated approach led by circular economy could definitely help in giving boost to sustainable mining. A transformational change is required to think in the direction of utilizing the mine wastes for better societal, geo-environmental, geo-metallurgical, engineering, economic, and legal/regulatory fields. Generation of such products that can sever as a raw material in other line productions such as in chemical, primer, dye & paint, ceramic, rubber, pottery glazes, soil remediation technologies, sorptive filtration media and coatings industries can connect the mining industries with end users. This would open up the doors to share a possible mechanism between the beneficiaries i.e. industry, buyers, the government and society. Along with scientific knowledge, social perception and acceptability for those products is equally important and can only be properly determined by applying a multidisciplinary approach.