Applicability of the chromium reducible sulfur test for acid metalliferous drainage prediction in hard rock mining

This paper outlines the results of a comparative laboratory study of 55 Western Australian mine waste samples and mineral specimens for AMD potential using CRS results from routine commercial laboratories normally handling soil samples as well as conventional approaches. CRS was found to be generally suitable for many applications, particularly for common iron sulfides at low to moderate concentrations (relevant to many iron ore, mineral sands and gold mining operations). However, CRS was not a reliable predictor of potential acid production from samples containing elevated concentrations of iron sulfides, base metal sulfides, arsenopyrite or molybdenite. Issues with CRS precision and bias were also indicated. A good understanding of sulfide mineralogy is required for accurate AMD predictions of these types of mine wastes, and cannot be obtained from any single test.