We will soon have proposals from Environment Agency about mine water remediation in the West Allendale and Killhope areas.

Apart from aditnow, I would like to know of any mine exploration groups who (1) have a particular interest in those areas and (2) who have an interest in the whole North Pennines area, and (3) would be willing to be involved in consultations.

Happy to discuss this by p.m. or phone 01642564100, or meet me at Nenthead on 13th May.

This is an extract from the latest DEFRA document:

Abandoned Metal Mines
Abandoned metal mines (‘metal mines’) are a highly significant source of water pollution in some water bodies as they discharge high concentrations of metals (e.g. lead, cadmium, zinc and iron) into rivers, lakes, sea and groundwater. Recent research has identified that 226 Water Framework Directive water bodies are impacted by metal mines with a further 243 probably impacted out of a total of 6910 water bodies i.e. 6.8%.

However, there is no sustainable technology available to treat discharges from metal mines (with the exception of metal mines discharging iron) as they rely on significant inputs of chemicals and energy. Defra have therefore funded a research programme to investigate the possibility of developing a viable treatment which is sustainable and cost-effective. The research is proceeding and is expected to be finalised towards the end of 2011.

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I would have thought someone from CATMHS might want to be involved, particularly with the similar work already being done at Force Crag.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/130099.aspx 

I'll check my latest newsletter.

Not looked at all of it but may be some ideas here

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Research/Metal_mines_newsletter_Spring_09__2_.pdf 

I think CCW did some work on this round Aberystwyth

There are a many academic papers on the subject of the Tyne and Wear river catchments and the effects of the waters draining from metal and coal mines. If you search google scholar on this subject, you can read many of these papers.

EA are required to produce plans for remediation of the water - in order to meet legal requirements for reducing the pollution.

The first plans will soon be available and Mine Explorers - as a group of interested people - will have the opportunity to comment.

I have asked NAMHO Secretary to circulate amongst members.

The first plans will be about the West Allen and Killhope burn catchments - which I believe are not often visited. I was therefore trying to find out if any of our members have any current knowledge in the mines in these areas. If you think in terms of water flows, then Scraithole, Barneycraig, Longcleugh, and Kiersleywell in West Allen will be of interest.

Proposals at other sites in England and wales have included sealing up the mine entrances.

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I was thinking more of the practical work done over the last 10 or so years on the Ystwyth. I seem to remember at least one mine uses linked ponds and a form of natural filter but I have not been up there for some time.

Peter - the Nenthead pilot plant, designed by Adam Jarvis at Newcastle University, pumps the zinc-rich mine water through a mix of limestone chippings and sheep manure. It has been running for over twelve months and has succeeded in reducing the zinc in the outflow to nearer the legal maximum. Not sure whether it will work if a scaled up tank was built, but at the moment no other solution appears to be available.

The running costs include a pump to get the water into the tank and a regular changeover of the chippings and manure, plus disposal.

It is potentially possible to site a larger tank below the main mine water outflows and remove the need for a pump.

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All sorts of ideas here:

http://www.oilgae.com/algae/cult/sew/new/hmr/hmr.html 

The only problem seems to be how to get rid of the heavy metals once they've been absorbed/deposited.

Cheers

Just a thought but would it be viable to process the filter matirial to recover the metel etc?

I have number of thoughts/questions on this thread.
The first one is about waste metal ion recovery.
Unless there is a prospect of hundreds of thousands of tons of it then my guess is this is a complete non -starter.
I base my analysis on the Lisheen mine in Ireland. Here Anglo-American set up a complete new Lead-Zinc mine and during the extraction phase discovered a large amount of Nickle ore.
Now Nickle has a high market price and yet the amounts of ore available(around 100,000 tons), could not justify the erection of of a processing plant to recover it.
So paltry amounts will stand no chance of being recovered.
Secondly I have recently looked at the outside of the Rampgill installation, and it appears to me that only a small amount of the water issuing from the mine is being treated.
Hopefully Pete will correct me if this is incorrect.
If my surmise is correct then I can only envisage a very large scale up costs to treat all of the water.
I realise Pete suggested that mines could be bricked up but I remember the consequences of the blocking of Magpie sough and more recently the blocking of the Leadhills drainage adits. These were just accidents but any other 'sealing' would lead to similar results.

I have number of thoughts/questions on this thread.
The first one is about waste metal ion recovery.

No chance whatsoever of it being a heavy metal recovery operation - what matters here is water decontamination.

I have had some connection with reed bed systems for sewage/wastewater processing in the Middle East. Reed beds are a self-regenerating process for wastewater treatment, but how they handle heavy metals was outside the range of our research.

Is the form in which the HMs are extracted from the water inert, or is it still an environmental hazard?

If it is not a hazard, then simply streaming the water through natural peat or reeds seems to be the most natural and economical way to go.

But then the question arises as to whether there is a saturation point, and, if there is, that takes us back to square one.

If appropriate osmosis plants are anything like what they are being trialed in Norway for seawater desalination, then the costs would be astronomical - so they are out from the start.

Blocking the waters off seems to me to be turning a blind eye to the problem, or at least pushing it into someone else's back yard - as well as spoiling a lot of underground fun.

Any other ideas out there? Like what kind of plants thrive on heavy metal-rich water.

Cheers

I started this thread for two reasons (1) to ask if anyone is active in West Allen and (2) to make us more aware of the possible impact on mine exploration.

I understand from the researchers who have been doing this work that the Nenthead pilot plant has shown good results. As John pointed out, it is only pumping a small amount of the outflow through the tank. The big question is whether a scaled up plant would deliver a similar result - nobody knows. The problem of the waste disposal is also unsolved - apparently there is a growing problem of dealing with the accumalated material from some of the NE Coalfield treatment sites. At the moment, the only solution is to store the recovered material in clay lined ponds.

One of my concerns is the USA model. The sites at Leadville have the water outflow channels covered from the mine entrance to the treatment plant and access is not possible. Might the same thing happen here?

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Hi interested parties,
Thanks Pete for confirming what I had surmised.
I take on your concern regarding the Colorado mine Adits.
However looking at the outflow from our North Pennine mines I would have thought all the resulting outflow could be taken by a conventional land drain with appropriate catchment within the mine.
The only proviso being there are from time to time storm surges.
I remember on one occasion coming out of Rampgill(during the Winter and when snow was melting), the outflow level,at the entrance was waist deep!
These sort of surges could carry out a lot of damage to any water effluent treatment!