Many environmental research program activities occur at the Hibbing research facility. The research facility hosts ongoing short-and long-term experiments and provides a place to conduct new research initiatives. The research facility also serves as the home base for supporting LAM research studies across Minnesota’s mining region. The research program commonly pools resources with the mining industry, academic and research institutions, and other State agencies to enhance the scope and objectives of research activities. More than 40 years of LAM research is available on the environmental research webpage.
Reflected Light Microscopy
The most recent DNR research work includes two reports. One of the reports compares results between standardized humidity cells and a specialized column kinetic test to demonstrate how specialized column tests can improve waste characterization programs. The other report evaluates a method for calculating sulfide mineral reaction rates from individual sulfide grains. The data is collected from field and laboratory rock weathering experiments.
Additionally, the research program was involved in projects related to geomembrane integrity and the microbiology of Duluth Complex rock weathering experiments. The geomembrane integrity study is being conducted at the Hibbing field site in collaboration with the Fabricated Geomembrane Institute. The microbiology study analyzed materials sampled from field and laboratory experiments conducted at the Hibbing research facility.
Weather station at Hibbing field site, including manual rain and evapotranspiration gauges reported to the CoCoRaHS Network (Station MN-SL-137), an automated rain gauge and Class A evaporation pan, and precipitation isotope collectors
Recent reclamation research documents
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