The resulting leachate can contaminate both surface and groundwater systems. Funded by the US Bureau of Mines and the US Bureau of Land Management. Integrated geochemical studies of waste material, surface water and groundwater are required to develop remediation solutions. Experiments conducted using these cells are aimed at determining if and when the material will produce acid rock drainage which can leach out heavy metals and contaminate surface or ground waters. A key issue is to understand the residence time of water moving through a pit lake.
Long times lead to enhanced geochemical interaction with the wallrock.
Chemical stratification controls the variations in redox state that must be incorporated in predictive models of lakewater quality. Lake waters contain elevated concentrations of Se which will increase over time due to the O 2 rich water interacting with the Yerington ore rock.