Synthetic Mining Solutions for Laboratory Testing of Geosynthetic Clay Liners
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 10
Abstract
Geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) are increasingly used in engineering and environmental applications that include nonstandard solution chemistry. Long-term exposure of geosynthetics to nonstandard solutions in containment facilities, such as heap leach pads, municipal and hazardous solid waste containment, and so on, may cause degradation of bentonite and polymeric components and alter the hydraulic and mechanical properties of GCLs. Leachate collected from full-scale containment facilities has commonly been used in previous studies for field-focused GCL-related experiments. However, due to problems associated with using actual leachates, representative synthetic solutions often are used. A step-by-step procedure for the design, preparation, and verification of representative synthetic mining solutions for laboratory testing on GCLs is described in this study. Recipes for creating three synthetic mining solutions to simulate gold, copper, and bauxite process solutions are presented. The procedure for solution development and prepared solutions were verified via comparison of measured to calculated metals concentrations, which yield concentration differences less than 8% for all three synthetic process solutions.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support for this study was provided by the Colloid Environmental Technologies Company (CETCO), Geosynthetic Research Institute (GRI), and Colorado State University (CSU). The opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of CETCO, GRI, or CSU.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 10 • October 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 13, 2017
Accepted: Apr 25, 2018
Published online: Aug 10, 2018
Published in print: Oct 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jan 10, 2019
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