The crisis caused by COVID–19 has also influenced the progress of the LIFE DEMINE project. Mobility restricitons due to the COVID-19 pandemic started a year ago when the pilot plant of the LIFE DEMINE project was countinuosly operating in Frongoch, our demonstration site in Wales. The main objective of this demonstration period in Frongoch was to monitor and assess the treatment performance of the pilot plant under realistic conditions over a medium term period of time (arround 9 months) to assure the good performance of the system and also to take into account possible seasonal variability. The COVID-19 situation and its mobility restrictions hindered the continuous monitoring plan. In order to overcome this situation, the LIFE DEMINE consortium decided to extend the implementation period in Frongoch. Nowdays, the pilot plant is still operating in Frongoch and its performance is being evaluated in order to obtain engouh data to assure the good performance of the system.
At the same time, a second pilot plant will be deployed in the following months at the deployment site in Germany. Despite the original idea was to adapt the pilot plant already constructed and implementated in Frongoch to the German site, the COVID situation has modified this plan and finally a new second pilot plant will be constructed, transported and installed in Germany considering the characterisitcs of the German mine water effluent. This second pilot plant will be installed in Mundoch Schlüsselstollen (Germany).
New demonstration site in Germany
Schlüsselstollen is a mining tunnel for drainage of the former Mansfeld copper shale district in Saxony-Anhalt, a copper mining area in Germany that includes several abandoned mines. With a length of 32.3 km, this tunnel was operating during the 18th and 19th centuries and it is one of the longest in Europe. Since 1981, the remaining mine water flows out of the abandoned mines via the Schluesselstollen to the creek Schlenze before it flows into the river Saale, with an average flow of 20-25 m³/min approximately. The mine water is hypersaline and contains high metals loading, polluting the receiving water bodies and affecting the ecosystem performance.
Therefore, despite the COVID-19 situation, the The LIFE DEMINE project continues to work to demonstrate the efficency of the DEMINE tehcnology to decrease the environmental impact caused by abandoned mines in waterbodies.