Brown, a wastewater consultant and former president of the International Mine Water Association (IMWA), speaks about metal extracted from wastewater. “Suddenly any metal recovery is beneficial in the sense that it has the ability to either reduce your project costs or, at the very least, to dispose of the extracted material from your project at zero or no cost,” he said.
Moreover, the article mentioned some technologies used for metal recovery from mine wastewater such as ion exchange, ultra filtration, electrolytics and various biological treatments to oxidize metals. None is without its challenges, according to Brown. Biological treatments require long timescales and considerable space, while electrolytic and filtration solutions are energy-intensive and generate concentrated waste.
However, the expert says he is confident about the potential for metal recovery from mine wastewater. “It is wide open as there are some very major changes in the underlying technologies … all of which have been greatly optimized in recent years.”
