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CASE STUDY: PERFORMANCE OF THE OPERATING DEMONSTRATION-SCALE CONSTRUCTED WETLAND TREATMENT SYSTEM AT MINTO MINE
Bouchard, E., C. Prentice, R. Herbert, R. Martz, B. Eisner, V. Friesen, and M. Simair.
41st British Columbia Mine Reclamation Symposium, 17-20 September, Williams Lake, BC, 2018

The Minto Mine is following a phased approach for the design and implementation of a constructed wetland treatment system (CWTS) for water treatment at closure. The CWTS is currently in the demonstration-scale and optimization stage preceding full-scale implementation. The CWTS has successfully treated constituents of potential concern in the mine site's sub-arctic continental climate. Carex aquatilis (aquatic sedge) and aquatic mosses (bryophytes) from natural wetlands onsite were used for planting, while water mine-impacted seepage water was used as feed water. The CWTS was designed to target specific physicochemical parameters for treatment (confirmed and refined through off-site pilot-scale testing), which enable denitrifying selenium- and sulfate-reducing bacteria to treat nutrients, metals, and metalloids in the water. The CWTS treated targeted constituents of potential concern in the following extents and percentages: cadmium 80% (from 0.0261 µg/L to 0.0092 µg/L), copper 65% (from 49.1 µg/L to 17.3 µg/L), molybdenum 58% (from 6.3 µg/L to 2.7 µg/L), selenium 89% (from 4.0 µg/L to 0.5 µg/L), zinc 98% (from 49.2 µg/L to 1.9 µg/L), and nitrate as N 97% (from 6.5 mg/L to 0.19 mg/L). Continued trials were underway in 2018 to investigate treatment under a wider range of operational conditions. https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/59367/items/1.0374546 More information http://www.emr.gov.yk.ca/mining/pdf/mml-minto-rcp-v2018-01-appendix-a6.pdf



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