Efficacy of Silica Polyamine Resins in Remediation of Highly Contaminated AMD

Abstract

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is an ongoing problem in Montana and remediation is very expensive. New silica polyamine resin technology offers an effective alternative to traditional polystyrene resins in terms of metal recovery. Such resins have been successful in recovering Cu from the Berkeley Pit at 97% purity and rates as high as lOg/L1. While these resins are very successful at recovering metals with high percent purities, little is known about effluent water quality following metal reclamation. Providing the effluent water quality meets state health standards following reclamation, these resins could be used to offset the costs of cleanup while providing clean water sources as well. This thesis will examine the efficacy and practicality of using polyamine resins to clean up contaminated water sources.