Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Mine tailings, waste rock, and other mining wastes from precious and base metal mines are often stored underwater in tailings ponds. Responsibility for the management of seepage and meteoric water from tailings ponds often continues well after the closure of the mine. Such is the case at Golden Giant Gold Mine (GG) in Northern Ontario. The mine closed in 2005 and most of the GG property was sold, leaving only the tailings pond and some surrounding property and facilities with Newmont Canada Corporation. Newmont is charged under GG's closure plan with continuing contaminated water treatment and safe disposal.Seepage through some of the rock dams is collected in groundwater wells outside of the tailings pond and pumped in an insulated pipeline for treatment in Newmont-operated wastewater treatment facilities. However, slime formation in some of these wells, due to certain iron-oxidizing bacteria, is plugging pipelines, causing corrosion and leading to operating problems. During this project the CAWT will assess the problem, evaluate various methods to mitigate it, and devise programs that can be implemented in the field to fix it. As a result of this project, the treatment of the tailings pond seepage will be improved and Newmont will have a solution that they could implement at other mining sites that are afflicted with this particular bacteria problem.