With acid mine drainage (AMD) being a persistent and near catastrophic problem in the South African context, a number of stakeholders have collaborated on the Mine Impacted Water: From Waste To Resource conference. This conference intends on joining stakeholders in the common goal to mitigate the problem of AMD and to successfully scale up and implement research that has been carried out in academia and at research institutions.

The potential that mine impacted water has can range from irrigation to purposes and even, with the correct treatment, reach drinking water standard.

“Each stakeholder, from government, mining companies and academia, needs to come together, each taking responsibility to create viable solutions for the AMD problem that the country faces. With Academia as the brain power and driving force behind solutions, all stakeholders need to come together to successfully implement these solutions,” says pyrometallurgical company Mintek chief engineer Buhle Sinaye Xakalashe.

The conference aims to create a platform where all the stakeholders of interest in the industry can come together and implement sustainable solutions to mitigate the problem of AMD and mine impacted water from a range of proposed technologies.

With this great challenge and a common goal to mitigate this challenge, all stakeholders have come together despite challenges presented by Covid-19 to discuss about possible solutions and exchange ideas in a South African context.

Xakalashe notes that, despite conference and workshop challenges that the pandemic might have placed on this conference, it provided new opportunities to extend the reach of the conference beyond the borders of South Africa.

“with local stakeholders including industry institute The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, academic institute University of the Witwatersrand, intermediary agency National Research Foundation and Mintek, the pandemic made it possible for international stakeholders such as German academic institute IME of the RWTH Aachen University to also join this conference virtually. This is a long term undertaking that will continue to go on until there is no longer an AMD problem in South Africa,” concludes Xakalashe.