Abstract

ROJAS-MARIN, Elkin Dario; ANGARITA-IZAQUITA, Gustavo Andrés; PALACIOS, Jhon Freddy  and  DELVASTO, Pedro. Development of a heuristic methodology for the selection of a passive treatment for acid mine drainage in Santander, Colombia. Bol. geol. [online]. 2024, vol.46, n.1, pp.73-101.  Epub Oct 04, 2024. ISSN 0120-0283.  https://doi.org/10.18273/revbol.v46n1-2024005.

Aheuristic methodology was developed, with the purpose of selecting a passive treatment characterized by having chemical and/or biological processes to treat acid mine drainage, which does not use external equipment and can operate for up to 20 years, the above as an alternative to remediation of acid mine drainage in the province of Soto Norte, Santander and that, according to studies carried out, showed high concentration levels of elements, compounds such as iron, lead, copper, aluminum and sulphates, and acid pH. In order to find successful and replicable alternatives from other parts of the world that present similar problems, a bibliographic search was carried out, which resulted in 40 industrial plants located in the following countries: United States, United Kingdom, Spain, New Zealand and Canada. Subsequently, each of them was evaluated and the following variables were defined for their selection: dilution of pollutants, flow and time of operation, then they were graphed, categorized and prioritized according to their probability of success. In this process, we obtained as a result 3 plants with a very high categorization and 8 plants with high probability of success, of which, the plant called Cadillac Molybdenite of Canada presented the best performance taking into account, the cost, number of stages among other indicators evaluated and the possibility that these technologies can be replicated in Santander.

Keywords : Environmental pollution; Decision making; Mining; Remediation; Water treatment.

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