The Potential Of Acid Mine Drainage Formation At Bukit Besi, Dungun, Terengganu

Abstract

Acid mine drainage (AMD) at Bukit Besi is often accompanied by high concentrations of various heavy metal such as iron, lead, copper, zink, cadmium, manganese, nikel, and arsenic. The samples were collected from active mining site at Cheng Yu, Bukit Besi. The physical and chemical tests used are ion chromatography (IC) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) test, toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP), and clay mineralogy using XRF (X-ray fluorescence) and XRD (X-ray diffraction) techniques. Static test which is acid-base counting are used to predict the potential of AMD. The water analysis showed a very acidic water with pH < 3.5 with high concentration of heavy metals like Fe (822.03 mg/L) and sulfate (4455.87 mg/L). Acid-bases rock calculation shows highly significant results which have high potential of acid production (9.5 to 155.0 kg CaCO3/ton). The results from physical and chemical analysis show Bukit Besi area is potentially exposed to formation of acid mine drainage.