Quick clean-up: New process turns decades into hours for mining-water purification

Cleaning up the water left over from mining operations can literally take generations — 25 to 50 years on average — leaving billions of gallons of the precious resource locked up and useless. Now, a researcher has figured out how to trim that time dramatically – to just two to three hours, a potential boon to mining companies, the environment and global regions where water is scarce.