Toxic metals reduction in acid mine drainage through the use of calcium carbonate: A case study in Canchayllo, Peru

• Autores: Enciso Rondon, Vladimir Brayan, Guadalupe Lazaro, Jean Marco, Boza Sullca, Pedro Luis, Tantavilca Martinez, Nelida, Arcos Chuquillanqui, Susana Lucia
• Formato: tesis de grado
• Fecha de Publicación: 2025
• Institución: Universidad Continental
• Repositorio: CONTINENTAL-Institucional
• Lenguaje: inglés
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.continental.edu.pe:20.500.12394/19183
• Enlace del recurso: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12394/19183; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54684-6
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Aguas residuales; Ácidos; Minerales; Sewage; acids; https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#2.07.05

Environmental liabilities comprise facilities, effluents, contaminated sites, and residues or waste deposits that have a real, potential, or permanent im- pact on people's health and environmental quality. This study focuses on the eval- uation of calcium carbonate extracted from limestone as a neutralizing agent due to its abundance, low cost, and low toxicity for the treatment of acid mine drain- age in the "La Calzada" mining environmental liability in Canchayllo, Peru. Wastewater analyses were conducted at Continental University, where metal lev- els and pH were determined. The results revealed that "La Calzada" mining lia- bility has high levels of iron (3,266 - 9,287 mg/L), arsenic (0.24 - 0.35 mg/L), cop- per (1,560 - 2,313 mg/L), and an acidic pH of 3.14, exceeding environmental qual- ity standards for water. To address this issue, calcium carbonate with 87% purity, obtained from crushed limestone, was used as a neutralizing agent. The applica- tion of this compound in the samples resulted in an increase in pH from 3.14 to 7.50, as well as a reduction in concentrations, yielding final concentrations of arsenic (0.039 mg/L), copper (0.107 mg/L), and iron (0.056 mg/L). These find- ings demonstrate the effectiveness of calcium carbonate as a flocculant in the treatment of acid mine drainage in the "La Calzada" mining liability, suggesting its potential application in other areas affected by similar mining environmental liabilities.