Effectiveness of Covers and Liners Made of Red Mud Bauxite and/or Cement Kiln Dust for Limiting Acid Mine Drainage

This paper presents a laboratory investigation to evaluate the capacity of alkaline residues to inhibit acid mine drainage. Column tests were used to evaluate the geochemical behavior of cement kiln dust (CKD) and red mud bauxite (RMB) used as covers, liners, or mixed with acid producing tailings and waste rocks. The most important indicators of neutralization are pH and the concentrations of metals in solution. Initial leachate pH of samples with an alkaline cover composed of 10% CKD or 10% of a mixture of CKD and RMB was low, but rapidly increased to near 7.0 and stabilized for the duration of this study. The use of alkaline materials as a liner had a positive effect on the reduction of Fe, SO4 and other metals such as Cu and Zn concentrations and the number of viable bacteria. In the cases where the alkaline layer was used as a liner or mixed with the waste rocks, near neutral pH values were rapidly reached in the leachate. However, in these columns the leachate pH values decreased over time.