Advanced Techniques in Mining Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery

Dear Colleagues,

The economies of many countries, whether they are developed or developing, depend on mining activities. Mining plays a major role in the discovery and development of new technologies including artificial intelligence. Some elements possess unique properties that cannot be found in other elements, making them precious and important for industrial revolution. This makes the mining of elements very essential and unavoidable; thus, the mining of precious elements will continue for many decades to come. Unfortunately, mining has a negative impact on the environment since toxic elements are released along with the large amount of waste that results during the mining and the processing of the elements. Mining wastewater is readily released into the environment and is known to be one of the major environmental pollutants. Natural waterbodies (rivers, seas, oceans, lakes, etc.) and soils are the main recipients. These natural resources should be protected because if they are negatively affected, important sectors such as the agriculture, water, education, and energy sectors will also be affected; hence, the economies of many countries around the world are dependent on mining. Thus, the treatment of mining wastewater before its release into the environment is of the utmost importance.

The currently available mining wastewater treatment techniques have some setbacks and produce a high amount of secondary pollution. Therefore, it is crucial to develop advanced techniques for the treatment of mining wastewater that address these setbacks and lead to minimal secondary pollution. It is also important for the techniques to be selective and cheap, as well as being efficient, in order to upsurge the attraction from the mining companies. In addition, mining companies often face the challenge of losing precious elements in the resulting mining and processing waste.

This Special Issue provides a platform for researchers to discuss and exchange their ideas and results related to the above summary. Our Special Issue will cover a broad range of relevant topics of interest, including the following:

1. Removal of toxic elements from mining wastewater;
2. Recovery of precious elements from wastewater;
3. Adsorption and desorption of mine pollutants;
4. Classification of pollutants in mining waste;
5. Selective recovery of precious elements;
6. Factors influencing wastewater treatment;
7. Treatment of mine wastewater with waste from other industries;
8. Beneficiation of mining waste;
9. Waste identification using artificial intelligence;
10. Modelling the transport of mine waste to waterbodies and soils.

Dr. Alseno Kagiso Mosai
Dr. Izak Kotze
Prof. Dr. Elvis Fosso-Kankeu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• mine wastewater
• toxic elements
• precious elements
• recovery
• adsorption