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Polluting The Environment With Acid Mine Drainage In Sudbury, Ontario

392 Words2 Pages

Mines are important to civilizations because mining has provided metals that are used in the construction, transportations, energy, etc. Many important mines in Ontario can be found in Sudbury. However, mines pollute the environment by polluting the environment with acid mine drainage. Microbes speed up the process of leeching and oxidation in producing acid mine drainage. Nadia Mykytczuk, an environmental microbiologist in Sudbury, Ontario is investigating how microbes could be used to retrieve the ore tailings from mines instead of polluting the environment with acid mine drainage. She hypothesizes that the bioleaching could help prevent the harmful affects of acid mine drainage on the environment, recover valuable metal from the earth, and restore mines to be a habitable environment for species.
http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Industry-News/mining/2013/06/Microbes-could-help-recover-metals-in-tailings.aspx …show more content…

Oxidation is a synthesis reaction between a chemical and oxygen. The sulphur found in ore tailings reacts with oxygen to create a non-metal oxide, which is an acidic oxide. Another synthesis reaction occurs where the non-metal oxide, sulphur dioxide reacts with water to produce sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is an acidic solution and acid damages the environment by polluting lakes and harm wildlife such as fish. However, acid can be neutralized using a base. The pH would be closer to 7 and produce water and an ionic compound ending the pollution and protecting the wildlife in the environment. Neutralization has been used to clean up our lakes from acidic or basic

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