IMPI for mine-water treatment

Abstract

W A T E R T R E A T M E N T IMPI for mine water treatment I MPI - Integrated Mana ged Passive Treat ment Process technology - has been de veloped and patented by William Pulles of Pulles Howard & De Lange and Professor Peter Rose of Rhodes University in response to the urgent need for a low-cost, self-sustaining, low-maintenance passive treatment system to address the problems of acidification and salinisation (in terms of sulphate) at operating, defunct and closed mines throughout South Africa. The IMPI process, says Dr Ralph Heath, a director of Pulles Howard & De Lange, can do this at less than half the capital cost required for an active system, which would use , among other capital-intensive ele ments, electricity and chemical dosing. Indeed, IMPI can treat a megalitre per day of mine water at a relatively low capital cost of R3-million to remove one tonne per day of sulphate at an operating cost which translates to 60c per cubic metre. “Operational costs are less than one-tenth of an alternative system,” Dr Heath points out.

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