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In 2002 scientists from Newcastle University were using llama droppings to help combat environmental problems caused by polluted water seeping from abandoned silver and tin mines in the Bolivian Andes.

"Mine water has a high acid content and is extremely damaging to the ecology of the surrounding areas. The scientific basis for the regeneration technique, which involves the creation of 'low-tech' bioreactors constructed in the form of wetlands with a substrata of compost and limestone, is called bacterial sulphate reduction. Bacteria living in the compost and limestone use dissolved sulphate, found in abundance in mine water, as an energy source, producing sulphide. The sulphide then reacts with the dissolved iron and traps it, as iron sulphide, in the compost bed. This process also raises the pH in the water and generates alkalinity.

This technique has been so successful in the North East of England that it is now being customised and exported for similar problems in other countries and is helping to make Newcastle University Europe's leading centre for minewater research."
Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/01/020131074807.htm


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