Passive metalliferous mine water treatment with recycled concrete aggregate

Passive metalliferous mine water treatment with recycled concrete aggregate | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Passive metalliferous mine water treatment with recycled concrete aggregate Adrian Brown This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6925469/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Metal-impacted water is generated by most metal mine facilities, usually in perpetuity. Responsible and legal mining requires that when discharged this water must meet water quality standards that are protective of human health and the environment. However, active treatment at most mine sites is difficult and expensive to maintain, particularly after the cessation of operations. This paper reports the results of a decade-long project that has demonstrated a successful method of long-term passive treatment of metalliferous mine water using universally available recycled concrete aggregate as the treatment medium. The method is to pass the metalliferous water upward through a large bed of recycled concrete aggregate with particle size between 10 mm and 40 mm, retain the water in the bed for between 4 to 8 days, and discharge of the treated water into a surface pond above the recycled concrete aggregate bed. This provides long-term removal of toxic and deleterious metals from the mine water, particulate filtration to retain the removed metals in the treatment system at non-hazardous levels, and oxidation and polishing before final discharge. The long-term testing presented in this paper demonstrates that when the passive treatment facility conforms to this design specification there is always a retention time which achieves the desired treatment of metals. crushed concrete MMW RCA column testing mine closure Full Text Supplementary Files MWEND2500141SummaryTestReports.pdf MWEND2500141TestDatabase.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 24 Jun, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 23 Jun, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 21 Jun, 2025 First submitted to journal 19 Jun, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6925469","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":475458704,"identity":"d21a4c05-4a79-47ca-8fb5-897ba8e1216f","order_by":0,"name":"Adrian Brown","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAuklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCTBpw2DAwMP4gBQtaSAtzAakaDkM0sImQZQO/tm9Dx/z7jgvb85+9oDEBwY7Od0GQpbcOW5szHvmtuHOnrwEwxkMycZmBwhZcyONTTq37Tbjhhs8Bsk8DAcStxHSIg/Rcs4epOUwUVoMIFoOJAK1GDYTpcXwzjFm479tyck7e3KMGWcYEOEXudttjA9nttnZbmc/Y/7jQ4WdHGHvo7mTNOWjYBSMglEwCnAAAI9eP+MuRC98AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0505-6145","institution":"Adrian Brown Consultants, Inc","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Adrian","middleName":"","lastName":"Brown","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-06-18 18:52:54","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6925469/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6925469/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":85371236,"identity":"1e413af9-78ec-4570-8684-5ee2e4467ef8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-25 07:37:09","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1118104,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"BrownAPassiveMineWaterTreatmentwithRecycledConcrete.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6925469/v1_covered_88e5d5b0-30b6-44b9-8a3f-8a4d08c406d6.pdf"},{"id":85370799,"identity":"b801919d-55ef-4f41-9289-0283e88c07f7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-25 07:29:05","extension":"pdf","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":460163,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MWEND2500141SummaryTestReports.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6925469/v1/6cbf1b3e11f3636888444501.pdf"},{"id":85368936,"identity":"080110ca-81b3-4b09-9f6f-cacb51efd043","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-25 07:13:05","extension":"xlsx","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":1456374,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MWEND2500141TestDatabase.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6925469/v1/02a364e3209a2f558a531060.xlsx"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Passive metalliferous mine water treatment with recycled concrete aggregate","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"mine-water-and-the-environment","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"mwen","sideBox":"Learn more about [Mine Water and the Environment](http://link.springer.com/journal/10230)","snPcode":"10230","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/mwen/default2.aspx","title":"Mine Water and the Environment","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"crushed concrete, MMW, RCA, column testing, mine closure","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6925469/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6925469/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eMetal-impacted water is generated by most metal mine facilities, usually in perpetuity. 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