Risk assessment of acidic drainage from waste rock piles using stochastic multicomponent reactive transport modeling

摘要

A recently developed risk-assessment framework based on stochastic reactive transport modeling allows evaluating the probability of acidic drainage from mineralogically heterogeneous waste-rock piles (WRPs) over 100s of years. The approach is based on multicomponent reactive transport solved through a computationally efficient streamtube-like formulation. Here, the framework is applied to evaluate the implication of mineral mixing (i.e. blending) and heterogeneity on the neutralizing potential ratio ( NPR ) within WRPs. The results cast doubt on the reliability of npr =4 as a universal indicator to ensure that acidic drainage is not released from such piles. Blending can strongly mitigate the risk of acidic drainage.