Waste Treatment Plants and Remediation Strategies in Indian Mining Areas: A Technical Review of Effluent Management, Acid Mine Drainage, Tailings Stacking, and Circular-Economy Recovery

Abstract: India's mining sector, a cornerstone of national industrial growth, generates vast volumes of solid, liquid, and gaseous waste at a time when per-capita water availability has fallen from roughly 5,000 cubic metres in 1950 to about 1,500 cubic metres today. This review synthesises current practice in mine-water treatment, acid mine drainage (AMD) bioremediation, tailings management, sector-specific hazardous waste handling, and the emerging circular-economy recovery of critical minerals from legacy waste. Evidence is drawn from operating case studies including Coal India Limited's community water-utilisation programmes, IIT Guwahati's constructed-wetland research, Hindustan Zinc's Dry Tailing Plant at Zawar, Tata Steel's hexavalent-chromium reduction facility at Sukinda, and the Uranium Corporation of India's radiological effluent controls at Jaduguda. The review finds that the sector is transitioning decisively from passive containment toward active resource recovery, Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) systems, and stacked dry tailings, while simultaneously identifying legacy dumps as a viable secondary source of nickel, cobalt, gallium, vanadium, and rare- earth elements.

Keywords: acid mine drainage, dry tailings stacking, hexavalent chromium, constructed wetlands, Zero Liquid Discharge, critical mineral recovery, red mud, jarosite.