Our mine system is specifically formulated for the phytoremediation of metalliferous mine sites and land contaminated with heavy metals.
It provides for quantified sequestered carbon, making it a sustainable and highly effective solution to industrial pollution.
Other benefits for industry include:
- Affordability
- The sustainable biochar used to produce our mine system is low cost and the product as a whole is substantially cheaper than traditionally expensive friable topsoil replacement or traditional hard-engineered options.
- Efficacy
- When our mine system is used as a hydroseeding additive, it is demonstrably more effective than standard hydroseeding. Independent large-scale slope testing has shown it to be 99.6% effective in soil erosion prevention and to have faster vegetation establishment.
- Drainage and soil oxygenation are drastically improved, with conditions for microbiological and earthworm activity encouraged.
- The mix used can be specifically tailored to the ground conditions on any particular site subject to soil testing.
- Environmental sustainability
- For our TerrAffix range our approach is to innovate and develop sustainable materials which are targeted to a particular problem within the wider environment. To that end we work closely with both accredited laboratories and academia to develop, trial and test new materials and ways of working. This mine system has been specifically formulated for the phytoremediation of land contaminated with heavy metal.
- The mine system improves the resilience of plants to pests and diseases, provides opportunities for thriving microbial populations and boosts depleted soils with nutrients, minerals and trace elements.
- Mine tailings include many toxic pollutants which contaminate surrounding areas. Phytostabilisation through the use of this system offers a long-term, cost-effective, sustainable contaminated land remediation option which promotes the re-establishment of vegetative cover whilst limiting pollutant transfer (Fellet et al., 2011).
- Biochar is produced specifically for remediating polluted soil and has been described as a “win-win-win solution to energy, carbon storage, and ecosystem function” (Biederman and Harpole). The carbon sequestration properties will assist companies in meeting their carbon budgeting requirements and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals.
Our mine system uses a contaminated land remediation product for metalliferous mine sites made from amended biochar.
It immobilises soil pollutants, including heavy metals, and also helps in the regeneration of vegetation in areas adversely affected by historic industrial pollution.
It works in the following ways:
- It is an amended matrix of high grade sustainable biochar augmented by naturally occurring nutrients and minerals specifically targeted towards acidic soils.
- Soil structure is promoted and spaces within the soil are created, leading to improved soil aeration within the root zone.
- Water and nutrient retention is improved within the root zone.
- It reduces pollution by providing growing plants with the correct conditions to encourage long-term and sustainable growth.
- It remediates land contaminated by heavy metal pollution, including copper, nickel, lead and zinc and reduces the mobility of these metals from contaminated soils into the vegetation.
- It reduces the mobilisation and bioaccumulation of heavy metals within the vegetation by increasing photosynthesis, above-ground biomass and total quantity of soluble carbohydrate within grass species.
- The biochar used in our mine system locks in pollutants, preventing them from leaching into watercourses. This makes it a highly effective and sustainable system of phytoremediation of contaminated land, which prevents wider pollution.
- As biochar can help soil to store carbon for thousands of years, its use in the mine system leads to wider carbon sequestration and climate benefits.
- A genuine sequestration value can be calculated for material applied.
