Kick off for the RASMIM Project

The RASMIM Project has just started this month of July. RASMIM is a research project funded by the European Commision and awarded with a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (IEF) (Call: FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF) for Dr. Patricia Acero in Birkbeck College-University of London (London-UK), under the supervision of Dr. Karen Hudson-Edwards.

The aim of the RASMIM project is to shed light on the dissolution of aluminum sulphates formed under acid mine drainage conditions. The release of Al to soils and waters may have severe effects on ecosystems and humans. Therefore, the RASMIM project will contribute to new mine development and to environmental and human health protection. 

With this goal, dissolution experiments using aluminum sulphates will be carried out. The evolution of solids and solutions during dissolution will be monitored using a wide range of cutting-edge mineralogical and geochemical techniques. These observations will be complemented by the development of atomistic computer simulations for the same processes.

The study will generate important data on the mechanisms, products and controls on the dissolution of Al sulphates. The project will provide a better understanding of the relative roles on dissolution of factors such as mineral structure and impurities, surface area, solution pH, composition and temperature or secondary mineral formation, among others.