Quantification of oxygen consumption and sulphate release rates for waste rock piles using kinetic cells: Cluff lake uranium mine, northern Saskatchewan, Canada

Oxidation rates of low sulphide (<0.5 wt.%) gneissic waste rock from the Cluff lake U mine, northern Saskatchewan, Canada were determined using 3 independent methods: O2 consumption rates in kinetic cells, SO4 measurements of kinetic cell effluent and humidity cell SO4 release rates. The O2 consumption measurements demonstrated that the oxidation of pyrite was strongly dependent on grain size and moderately dependent on water content, temperature and microbiology. Oxygen consumption rates were highest at water contents of 5–10 wt.% (12–25% saturation). Measured SO4 release rates (3.1–91 mg SO4 kg−1 wk−1) for the kinetic cells were comparable to rates calculated from the O2 consumption values (6.9–70 mg SO4 kg−1 wk−1). Sulphate release rates determined from humidity cells were generally higher than those obtained from the kinetic cells, ranging from 6 to 64 mg SO4 kg−1 wk−1 for the coarsest and finest fraction, respectively. These differences were attributed to sample heterogeneity.