Mission ALT4

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Stéphanie Jacquet (MIO-CEM) is participating, on board the Janus II (SAAS - Ship As A Service / COMEX marine) with colleagues from CREOCEAN and GET Toulouse, in the ALT4 mission of monitoring the discharge of the clarified effluent from the Gardanne alumina production plant (Bayer bauxite extraction process). Since 2016, the waste from the plant (sludge) is filtered in presses (and stored again on land) and the clarified residual effluent is treated since 2019 in a CO2 treatment plant before being sent to sea.
Water, hydrotalcite and sediment samples are taken at the head of the Cassidaigne canyon at the level of the effluent discharge, armed with Achille and Apache ROVs and sampling bottles.
Among other things, the program includes chemical and mineralogical analyses of all these samples.
Also on board, Julien and Katia, two film directors are working on a documentary on the great theme of red mud as part of a project that I am conducting in collaboration with Y. Noak and J. Rouchier