Industrial By-Products

Use of industrial by-products to prevent and reduce water contamination

Rafael Rodríguez Díez

To reduce or pre­vent water con­tam­in­a­tion in aban­doned min­ing sites is essen­tial. Using indus­tri­al by-products to achieve this goal is a rel­ev­ant con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­ab­il­ity and a circular/green eco­nomy. The tar­get audi­ence is formed by research­ers, tech­ni­cians or prac­ti­tion­ers evolved in pro­jects of rehab­il­it­a­tion and res­tor­a­tion of high con­tam­in­ated sites. The pro­gram is as fol­lows:

1. Con­tam­in­a­tion of water, air and soils in old aban­doned mer­cury mines. Risks related to work­ing in sites con­tam­in­ated with mer­cury. Descrip­tion of a real case. The SUBproducts4LIFE pro­ject.
2. Pre­vent­ing rain­wa­ter con­tam­in­a­tion by cov­er­ing it with fly ash. Prop­er­ties of fly ash. Influ­ence of cli­mat­ic con­di­tions. Ana­lys­is of a real case.
3. Redu­cing water con­tam­in­a­tion in fil­ter chan­nels with fly ash and slag. Prop­er­ties of by-products. Ana­lys­is of a real case.
4. Occu­pa­tion­al risks related to work in atmo­spheres that are highly con­tam­in­ated with mer­cury.

Speak­ers will be Rafael Rodríguez Díez and Efrén Gar­cía Ordiales, research­ers of the Uni­ver­sity of Oviedo with wide exper­i­ence in con­tam­in­a­tion related to aban­doned mer­cury min­ing. Oth­er speak­ers could be added to the teach­ing staff.

Attendees will under­stand the main prob­lems related to work­ing in sites con­tam­in­ated with mer­cury. They will learn the prin­ciples of two tech­niques to reduce/prevent water con­tam­in­a­tion and will solve some case stud­ies based on real cases. Spe­cial atten­tion is paid to As and Hg con­tam­in­a­tion. The occu­pa­tion­al risks related to the work with high con­cen­tra­tions of mer­cury in the air is also explained. Some simple soft­ware (Excel work­sheet) is included in the course to help in solv­ing case stud­ies. To get the most out of the course, attendees should have their own per­son­al com­puter.