Executive Summary

The problem of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) poses a significant environmental danger in British Columbia and other parts of the world involved in mining activities. Oxygenation reactions responsible for the chemical generation of acidity have been, by and large, identified. Thus far, rather simplified modelling techniques have been used in the analysis of these complex reactions that possess feedback loops characteristic of chemical chaos systems. Our primary objective was to provide an in-depth study of the basic reactions in the AMD problem; to model the associated chemical kinetics and draw conclusions regarding the predictability of these nonlinear processes.

Having derived the constituent differential equations under several sets of conditions, we have applied modern analytical and numerical techniques to investigate the regimes of behavior for both acid production and neutralization reactions. We have discussed important factors in the determination of predictable and unpredictable ranges of behavior which should be of much use in the prevention program. In the final two sections of the report an outlook has been given for the next logical steps in the modelling of chemical kinetics for the AMD problem. The report is supplemented with six Appendices that give the reader an overview of nonlinear phenomena.

Last Modified: 2003-11-26		Important Notices

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