Algae to benefit mining industry
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A type of algae is being developed to treat heavy metal and acidic wastewater from the mining industry.
It will be the first time algae has been used this way, and is one of the ideas to be presented at a forum at the University of Adelaide today.
The developer, Jamie Miller, says the algae technology has been designed for use in acid mine drainage.
"Essentially we are looking at significantly increasing the environmental outcomes and bringing economic benefits to the industry through the treatment of their water and recovery of wasted metals," he said.
"Acid mine drainage is a massive problem for the mining industry, it's a multi-billion dollar problem economically and an environmental problem and so we're seeing an opportunity in the industry to develop technology to treat this problem."
A prototype for the algae technology is expected to be produced by the middle of next year.
