Grant: Engage Grants Program

This Engage application aims at establishing a research partnership between Goldcorp Inc. and Dr. Ye at Laurentian University to develop iron oxide/carbon nanocomposite adsorbents for arsenic removal from gold mine effluents. Arsenic is often associated with gold-containing ores and is thus often present in industrial gold mine effluents. Due to its high toxicity and strict environment regulations, the capture and safe removal of arsenic present in mine effluents before their release to the environment is critical to reduce the environmental impacts of the mining activities for sustainable development. We herein aim to develop a class of low-cost iron oxide/carbon nanocomposite adsorbents of high capacity for the adsorption of arsenic from gold mine effluents. A systematic study on the nanoscale structure of the nanocomposite adsorbents and their performance in arsenic adsorption will be undertaken. The success of this research may lead to an arsenic adsorbent technology, which may find applications in the industry for gold mine wastewater treatment.