Author(s)

Agabu Shane^1*, Xinyang Xu², John Siame³, Alick Nguvulu⁴, Tewodros Mitiku Tena⁵, Musango Lungu³, Sydney Chinyanta¹, Jackson Kawala¹, Victor Mwango Bowa¹, Brian Chirambo⁵

¹Department of Mining Engineering, School of Mines and Mineral Sciences, Copperbelt University, Kitwe, Zambia.
²Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Natural Resources and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China.
³Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Mines and Mineral Sciences, Copperbelt University, Kitwe, Zambia.
⁴Department of Geomatics Engineering, School of Mines and Mineral Sciences, Copperbelt University, Kitwe, Zambia.
⁵Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Mines and Mineral Sciences, Copperbelt University, Kitwe, Zambia.

Acid mine drainage is wastewater from a mine having a low pH and an elevated level of dissolved heavy metals. These metals are harmful to aquatic, animal and human life. This paper looks at the removal of copper from acid mine drainage using ion exchange to less than 1 mg/l. A weak acidic cation resin was used. Spectrophotometric determination of copper with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate was used to determine the copper concentrations in the treated water. Using regression analysis, the experimental results gave a correlation coefficient of 0.977 and a coefficient of determination of 99.5%. Results indicated that the higher the flows rate the shorter the period after which the copper concentration in the treated water reaches 1 mg/l. At pH 3.85 and 5.09, the resin performed better and at pH above 6.62 and between pH 3.0 and below the resin’s does not perform well. The higher the resin height the greater is the resin exchange capacity and the longer it takes for the copper concentration to reach 1 mg/l in the treated water. The higher the wastewater copper concentration the shorter the time it takes the resin to reach 1 mg/l. The results for this experiment indicated that acid mine drainage can be treated well by ion exchange resins, but it is also very important to establish suitable operating conditions.

Acid Mine Drainage, Copper, Ion Exchange, Resin and Spectrophotometry

Shane, A. , Xu, X. , Siame, J. , Nguvulu, A. , Tena, T. , Lungu, M. , Chinyanta, S. , Kawala, J. , Bowa, V. and Chirambo, B. (2021) Removal of Copper from Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) or Acid Rock Drainage (ARD). Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 13, 435-454. doi: 10.4236/jwarp.2021.137026.