Cleaning Mine Waste with Pig Shit

[Edi]

Quiote unfortunately there isn't anything available on the web that I can find even in Finnish, never mind English. However, I still deemed this important enough to post.

There was a rather lengthy item on yesterday's evening news here about how there is research being conducted on how pig shit could be used to clean the waste material and pollution from mines cheaply, cleanly and efficiently. The Outokumpu mining company has been experimenting with this for a few years in one of its mines here in Finland and it has attracted attention from some Finnish universities and technical universities.

The biggest pollutant from mines is the waste products from mining, which tends to have high concentrations of poisonous metals and metal compounds, especially nitrates. Especially abandoned pit mines that fill with water are basically lakes of poison. It turns out that pig shit is rife with bacteria that reduce nitrates and cause them to become precipitated, so they sink to the bottom and get out of circulation if introduced into the water.

So basically all you need to do is dump a massive amount of pig shit into such abandoned pit mines or even closed mines where they've filled up with water and after a number of years, you have a cleaned up site with zero effort beyond that required from adding more pig shit from time to time. The efficiency numbers they were quoting were an environmentalist's wet dream, something like 80%+ reduction of the affected minerals and minuscule follow-up cleaning costs compared to if you tried traditional methods from the get-go.

Give it a few years and we might see some real improvement on this as there will be more scientific studies of it and more reliable data. Once that happens, I think it will gain a lot of popularity, because it's a virtually free way of complying with environmental regulations and at the same time free good publicity with objective benefits.

It's one of the few really good news I've heard in a long time, and the apparent lack of downsides is just great. The only bummer is that this research is apparently only pursued in Finland and the issue is not well known at all.

Edi

[Dominus Atheos]

That much pig shit, in a small confined space.

Wouldn't that smell REALLY, REALLY bad?

[King Kong]

As I understand this issue, the mines contaminate the surrounding region because the metal-rich water seeps into the local groundwater. So wouldn't dumping a large amount of pig shit in with happily multiplying bacteria also contaminate the groundwater? Is the bacteria actually harmless to humans or is there some cheap way of removing them after they're done?

If this works though, it would be fantastic. I wouldn't worry about this not being heard of if it works well, companies are always looking for cheap ways to comply with environmental standards and look good in the public's eye. The western U.S. states have a large problem with poorly mined areas poisoning the surrounding regions. And they probably have a large amount of pig shit to spare. The diverse organisms (especially bacteria) on this planet can and do have massive practical applications for people; this is a fine example.

[TrailerParkJawa]

That is a lot of pig shit given how deep and how big some abandon mines are. I wonder if this might be better suited for treating waste water in the tailings ponds.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

That much pig shit, in a small confined space.

Wouldn't that smell REALLY, REALLY bad?

These are closed down, and abandoned mines, you turkey. Nobody, but idiots who don't heed the big bold signs cautioning people not to enter abandoned mineshafts, cares how bad it would smell. And the smell would only persist as long as you needed to top off the manure. Eventually, the organics in the manure would be completely decomposed, and the nitrates and heavy metals in the water will have been sequestered through the aforementioned biological processes. When the water percolates through the rock and into the water table, the percipitates would be filtered out and the resulting water will end up being very clean.

[RedImperator]

That much pig shit, in a small confined space.

Wouldn't that smell REALLY, REALLY bad?

You mean like it already does in the wastewater ponds of giant factory pig farms in places like North Carolina? If this works, it takes care of two problems: cleaning up the mines and doing something with those lakes of pigshit.

[Dominus Atheos]

That much pig shit, in a small confined space.

Wouldn't that smell REALLY, REALLY bad?

These are closed down, and abandoned mines, you turkey. Nobody, but idiots who don't heed the big bold signs cautioning people not to enter abandoned mineshafts, cares how bad it would smell. And the smell would only persist as long as you needed to top off the manure. Eventually, the organics in the manure would be completely decomposed, and the nitrates and heavy metals in the water will have been sequestered through the aforementioned biological processes. When the water percolates through the rock and into the water table, the percipitates would be filtered out and the resulting water will end up being very clean.

I thought this was so people to use the mine again.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

That much pig shit, in a small confined space.

Wouldn't that smell REALLY, REALLY bad?

These are closed down, and abandoned mines, you turkey. Nobody, but idiots who don't heed the big bold signs cautioning people not to enter abandoned mineshafts, cares how bad it would smell. And the smell would only persist as long as you needed to top off the manure. Eventually, the organics in the manure would be completely decomposed, and the nitrates and heavy metals in the water will have been sequestered through the aforementioned biological processes. When the water percolates through the rock and into the water table, the percipitates would be filtered out and the resulting water will end up being very clean.

I thought this was so people to use the mine again.

Nobody really cares about heavy metal and other assorted debris while they're using the mine. They just throw it all into a huge pile of tailings. And then water gets into it, and before you know, the mine, the groundwater, and the soil around it is absolutely flush with toxic chemicals and other mining wastes.

[Edi]

That much pig shit, in a small confined space.

Wouldn't that smell REALLY, REALLY bad?

These are closed down, and abandoned mines, you turkey.

To be fair, also abandoned open pit mines, which does mean there will probably be an almighty stink about the place, but it's an irrelevant consideration in any case if the only downside for detoxifying the area is some foul odor.

Nobody really cares about heavy metal and other assorted debris while they're using the mine. They just throw it all into a huge pile of tailings. And then water gets into it, and before you know, the mine, the groundwater, and the soil around it is absolutely flush with toxic chemicals and other mining wastes.

There is that, but if this pigshit thing works as well as they advertise, they can reduce the pollution from the get-go by building a waste pit where the tailings go mixed with the shit and the whole of it gets sunk underwater. It could, with the right kind of planning and execution, prevent a big waste problem from even building up in the first place.

But I'm glad to see that the brighter minds of the forum were quick to grasp the implications.

Edi

[TrailerParkJawa]

Just to highlight how bad wastewater from old mines can be, the biggest point source of copper in San Francisco Bay is an old mine in the Sierra that has been closed for decades if not more.