How can tailing ponds be rehabilitated to lessen the effects of hazardous chemicals on plant populations?

 There are many ways to lessen the effects or, hiding a tailing pond. The main way to rehabilitate tailing ponds from hazardous materials is to neutralize the chemical with limestone and superphosphate. The contents of a tailing pond is sent to a treatment facility to ‘clean’ it. When they are in the tailing pond they add water to make it subaqueous, which reduces oxidation of sulfide minerals. Luckily, for the environment, tailing ponds aren't so far from the mine. They use excess non-acid generating rock to build the tailing pond nearby and line it with a layer of geomembran, a synthetic material, to which stops leakage into the environment or the soil beneath. Water is usually added to tailing ponds. What do they do with the water, you may ask ^ Well they either actively or passively treat the water. Actively makes the water more basic to clean tailing ponds to create precipitates in the solution. After processing and using it many times, they can release it into the environment, but it is expensive. Passive treatment lets the environment clean the water by using plants and insects, it is cheaper. Most companies do a combination of both to protect the environment. To process gold, aqueous cyanide is used and is then hydrolyzed where it decomposes into less toxic compounds. This reaction is due to its effect with UV rays from the sun. When this process occurs, it is kept in an enclosed environment.

Other ideas are used to protect the environment from tailing ponds. In Alberta, in 2010 they tried to use a geotextile to cover the tailing pond during the winter to build a series of roads. In Greece, a rehabilitation process is going on where they have a 26.5 hectare land of a tailing pond. They are doing the rehabilitation process and as the process goes on they add plants that could thrive in the environmental conditions, and adapt to the contamination. A conceptual plan was also made up of processing tailing ponds material back into the environment and adding new soil to create a healthy pasture. Once the pH gets between 5 and ten, they can introduce worms, plants, trees, and animals to the area.

Geosynthetics. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.layfieldgroup.com/Geosynthetics/Project-Profiles/Tailings-Pond-Rehabilitation.aspx

LECTURE 4: MINING WASTE. (n.d.). Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://www.sgu.se/en/geointro/lecture-4-mining-waste/

Rehabilitation in Action: From Tailings Ponds to Green Space in Greece. (2020, July 13). Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://blog.eldoradogold.com/rehabilitation-in-action-from-tailings-ponds-to-green-space-in-greece/

Waihi Gold. (n.d.). Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://www.waihigold.co.nz/sustainability/environment/rehabilitation/rehabilitation-from-tailings-to-pasture-plantings-and-ponds/