Programme

Workshop

Please note that at the close of the Workshop,participants are invited to join the cocktail party launch of the South African Minerals to Metals Intitiative (SAMMRI)  in the downstairs conference venue. For more information on SAMMRI www.sammri.com

Effluent Treatment for Environmental Remediation and Values Recovery

Value from Waste – Turning a Problem into a Solution:
Technologies for Remediation and Value Recovery of Effluents and Wastes from the Minerals Industry

The minerals industry faces a tremendous challenge with the environmental impact emanating from the various waste streams (current and historic) originating from its activities. Acid mine drainage from historic mine shafts now threatens to flood the Witwatersrand basin, and polluted surface run-off from all types of mineral wastes and spillage from untreated effluent dams increasingly threaten our natural water courses. Although there is a wide range of treatment technologies available, process costs and final disposal of waste streams remain key obstacles. Increasing attention is therefore being paid to recovering value from waste streams to make treatment/recycle economically attractive.

 

This workshop is intended to present a cross-section of perspectives on the problem and potential solutions through effluent treatment and potential avenues for values recovery from wastes – possibly even before they turn into a problem. In four sessions we are aiming to leave the participant with a broad perspective on the problem and how it can potentially be turned into a viable solution:

 

Speakers

 

 Mariette Lieferink a well known environmental activist, will give an overview of the effluents from the different branches of the minerals industry in South Africa and where and to what extent these have an impact on people and the environment.

Dr Rob van Hille will give a detailed overview over processes to handle sulphate rich effluent streams and AMD, mainly using biological technologies, and also discuss some ideas on how AMD generation can be prevented.

Professor Alison Lewis (together with Dr Dylan Randall) will present technologies on precipitation and crystallisation of salts and metal sulfides from aqueous streams with a view to values recovery from these materials, including that of clean water.

Professor Mike Nicol will conclude with an overview of recent technologies for the recovery of metal values from various waste materials and technologies to render mineral wastes less or non-hazardous, and the complexities that designing such process may bring with them.

PROGRAMME

08:45 -10:15 Mariette Liefferink
10:15 -10:45 TEA/COFFEE
10:45 -12:15 Rob van Hille
12:30 -13:30 LUNCH
13:30 -15:30  Alison L ewis & Dyllan Randall
15:30 -15:50 TEA/COFFEE
15:50 -17:00 Mike Nicol
Closing with refreshments