Testing Native Grasses for Survival and Growth in Low pH Mine Overburden.

摘要

Overburden piles at the Molycorp molybdenum mine in North-Central New Mexico contain neutral rock types as well as mixed volcanic rocks, which are highly weathered materials with low pH and high salinity from pyrite oxidation. The mixing of rock types during overburden pile construction has resulted in heterogeneous substrates with a range of pH and soluble salt levels. An experiment to determine grass species more likely to survive and grow in these low pH overburden materials used substrate treatments consisting of an unadulterated acid rock, an acid:neutral overburden mixture ratio of 9:1, and an acid:neutral overburden mixture ratio of 3:1.