NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Tags: physical sciences, mining, water quality, permafrost, water sampling, hydrology, water quantity, mineralogy, biogeochemistry, waste rock

Objective(s): The objectives of this research is to investigate the processes related to water quality and quantity (collected at different scales) draining from country rock stockpiles that are located in areas of continuous permafrost.

Project Description: This licence is issued for the scientific research application No.969. The objectives of this research is to investigate the processes related to water quality and quantity (collected at different scales) draining from country rock stockpiles that are located in areas of continuous permafrost. Country rock stockpiles are mounds of rock removed from open pit diamond mines. The quality of water draining from a country rock stockpile is determined by the combined effects of oxygen transport in the air phase, biogeochemical processes that control mineral weathering rates, the release of heat and dissolved constituents due to sulfide mineral oxidation, and hydrologic processes that control unsaturated water flow. The transport of dissolved constituents is further affected by the precipitation and subsequent dissolution of secondary minerals. Three instrumented country rock stockpiles were constructed from 2004 to early 2... Show more007. Instruments in the pile include: -thermistors (connected to dataloggers for continuous measurement of internal pile temperatures) -time domain reflectometry (TDR) probes (connected to dataloggers for continous measurement of internal pile water content and movement) -soil water solution samplers (SWSS) (sampled manually for internal pore water geochemical composition) -air permeability probes (sampled manually to determine rock pile permeability to air) -thermal conductivity access ports (a custom thermal conductivity probe can be lowered into the conduits to measure rock pile thermal conductivity properties) -gas sampling ports (sampled manually using a multi-port oxygen and carbon dioxide analyser to obtain levels within the pile) -air pressure transducers (connected to dataloggers to measure air pressure changes) -microbiology access conduit an pyrite growth medium (installed during construction; tea bag-sized growth media samples removed from access conduit annually and analyzed for microbiological populations) The study is undertaken entirely as graduate program research through the University of Waterloo, University of British Columbia, and University of Alberta. Students and staff working on the project are all affiliated with the universities (students, researchers, technicians, professors, support staff). Season Diavik Environment staff from the communities may be able to learn about the project through exposure to the site and research team members, and possibly in assisting with some research activities. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted at the Diavik and Lac De Gras Mine Sites from 20-Jan-2009 to 31-Dec-2009. Show less