scholarly journals Governance and socio-political issues in management of acid mine drainage in South Africa

Water Policy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-89
Author(s):  
Charles Mpofu ◽  
Thabiso John Morodi ◽  
Johan Petrus Hattingh
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Acid Mine Drainage ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Mine Drainage ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Acid Mine ◽  
Black Economic Empowerment ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Abstract The water resources in South Africa are threatened by current and past mining practices such as abandoned and closed mines. While mining is considered valuable for its contribution to this country's gross domestic product, its polluting effects on water and land resources have been criticised as unsustainable. Acid mine drainage (AMD) is one specific public health and ecological issue that has stirred debates in political and social circles in this country. This paper examines the scalar politics and other related dimensions of water and AMD governance, thereby revealing evidence of deep-rooted challenges regarding the governance of water and mineral resources. The specific focus is on the socio-political context of labour laws and Black Economic Empowerment and the decision-making processes adopted by government. Thus, this paper has implications for the improvement of environmental governance and decision-making strategies and the adoption of a national strategy for adequately addressing AMD and related policy issues.

The effect of acid mine drainage on the hatching success of branchiopod egg banks from endorheic wetlands in South Africa

Hydrobiologia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 738 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan J. Henri ◽  
Victor Wepener ◽  
Martin Ferreira ◽  
Wynand Malherbe ◽  
Johan H. J. van Vuren
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Acid Mine Drainage ◽  
Hatching Success ◽  
Mine Drainage ◽  
Egg Banks ◽  
Acid Mine

scholarly journals Mesoporous Poly(melamine-co-formaldehyde) Particles for Efficient and Selective Phosphate and Sulfate Removal

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (21) ◽  
pp. 6615
Author(s):  
Konstantin B. L. Borchert ◽  
Christine Steinbach ◽  
Berthold Reis ◽  
Niklas Gerlach ◽  
Philipp Zimmermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acid Mine Drainage ◽  
Mine Drainage ◽  
Selective Adsorption ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Hybrid Particles ◽  
Aquatic Life ◽  
Acid Mine ◽  
Surface Areas ◽  
Sulfate Removal ◽  
Adsorption Capacities

Due to the existence-threatening risk to aquatic life and entire ecosystems, the removal of oxyanions such as sulfate and phosphate from anthropogenic wastewaters, such as municipal effluents and acid mine drainage, is inevitable. Furthermore, phosphorus is an indispensable resource for worldwide plant fertilization, which cannot be replaced by any other substance. This raises phosphate to one of the most important mineral resources worldwide. Thus, efficient recovery of phosphate is essential for ecosystems and the economy. To face the harsh acidic conditions, such as for acid mine drainage, an adsorber material with a high chemical resistivity is beneficial. Poly(melamine-co-formaldehyde) (PMF) sustains these conditions whilst its very high amount of nitrogen functionalities (up to 53.7 wt.%) act as efficient adsorption sides. To increase adsorption capacities, PMF was synthesized in the form of mesoporous particles using a hard-templating approach yielding specific surface areas up to 409 m2/g. Different amounts of silica nanospheres were utilized as template and evaluated for the adsorption of sulfate and phosphate ions. The adsorption isotherms were validated by the Langmuir model. Due to their properties, the PMF particles possessed outperforming maximum adsorption capacities of 341 and 251 mg/g for phosphate and sulfate, respectively. Furthermore, selective adsorption of sulfate from mixed solutions of phosphate and sulfate was found for silica/PMF hybrid particles.

scholarly journals Biospeckle Optical Coherence Tomography (bOCT) in the Speedy Assessment of the Responses of the Seeds of Raphanus sativus L. (Kaiware Daikon) to Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 355
Author(s):  
Danyang Li ◽  
Uma Maheswari Rajagopalan ◽  
Y. Sanath K. De Silva ◽  
Fenwu Liu ◽  
Hirofumi Kadono
Keyword(s):  
Optical Coherence Tomography ◽  
Acid Mine Drainage ◽  
Mine Drainage ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Invasive Technique ◽  
Optical Coherence ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Acid Mine ◽  
Short Time

The extraction of mineral resources from mines plays a vital role in global socio-economic development. However, acid mine drainage (AMD) has been one of the major pollutants, and a vast area of the agricultural fields has been polluted. Therefore, techniques for monitoring the response of plants to AMD that arise during mineral extraction are necessary. In addition, such a technique becomes especially valuable to understand how the plants could play a role in the phytoremediation of AMD. We propose the use of biospeckle Optical Coherence Tomography (bOCT) to investigate the response of Kaiware daikon seeds under the exposure to simulated AMD at two different concentrations of 40 mL/L and 80 mL/L. OCT images of the Kaiware daikon seed were obtained at a speed of 10 frames per second (1 frame: 512 × 2048 pixels) for a few tens of seconds. For each pixel of the OCT structural images, the contrast across the temporal axis was calculated to give biospeckle contrast OCT images (bOCT images). It was found that bOCT images clearly distinguished the changes due to 40 mL/L and 80 mL/L of AMD treatments from the control within a short time of around an hour, compared to the conventional OCT images that failed to show any changes. This variation was found to be statistically significant and could reflect the internal activity of the seeds. The proposed bOCT method could be a rapid, non-invasive technique for screening suitable plants in AMD phytoremediation applications.

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