176 Proceedings of The 5 th Sriwijaya International Seminar on Energy and Environmental Science & Technology Palembang, Indonesia September 10-11, 2014 Study of Physical Properties of Rocks and Acid Mine Drainage Potential at Banko Barat Tanjung Enim Siti Sailah 1 , Eddy Ibrahim 1 , Dedi Setiabudidaya 1 and M. Faizal 1 * 1 Environmental Science Program Sriwijaya University Corresponding author : siti.sailah@yahoo.com ABSTRACT One of the factors that generate acid mine drainage (AMD) is the presence of sulphide minerals in rocks because sulphide minerals will have oxidation with oxigen and water to generate AMD. Learning sulphide minerals in rocks can not be separated from the rocks themselves. Present paper is an attempt to study how the physical properties of rocks are and their influences in generating acid mine drainage. At Banko barat, especially at PIT 3 timur, the lithology of rocks is complex. It is assumed that the complexity of rocks will influence the complexity of formation of acid mine drainage. Thus by knowing the characteristics of each rock it is expected to be useful in identification of which rocks require special attention in the mine planning process. Keyword: acid mine drainage, rocks, physical properties of rock. 1. INTRODUCTION One of coal mining problems is the presence of acid mine drainage waste. AMD becomes an environmental problem when natural forms of neutralization such as carbonate minerals are not available in sufficient quantities to neutralize the drainage. The metal rich, low pH effluent is highly toxic to life downstream of the waste rock pile, e.g. Barry et al. (2000), Soucek et al. (2001) [1,2]. Acid mine drainage is very dangerous for environment so that it is very important to identify factors affecting AMD formation. Factors that control formation of acid mine drainage can be classified into two broad categories : 1) source characteristics/factors such as type, sulphide distribution and abundance, and other minerals with their acid neutralization capacity (ANC), rock texture and type, pore and interconnectivity (porosity and permeability), segregation and compaction degree, and 2) other environment factors such as climate, rainfall, air temperature, hydrogeology, waste volume and disposal method [3]. In general, pyrite (FeS 2 ) is a sulphide mineral that is commonly found on the waste rocks and will have oxidation when exposed. The typical oxidation is in accordance with the following reaction [4] :    15 4    7 2     2        4   (1) The characteristics of sulphide-bearing rocks play important role in formation of acid mine drainage. Consequently this study was particularly intended to understand characteristics of rocks especially their physical properties and acid mine drainage potential at Banko barat Tanjung Enim. 2. METHODS In order to achieve the aims of the study, some core samples from different wells were used to be analysed. Samples consist of coal and non-coal lithologies of boreholes located in PIT 3 Timur Banko Barat Bukit Asam coal mining area. Goals of laboratory analysis are to determine some physical properties such as density and porosity; and while acid mine drainage potential was reviewed through literature study compared to physical properties results and secondary data (rock acidity analysis) from PT. BA analysis result. Laboratory analysis was done by measuring rock parameters and mineralogy analysis with use of X-Ray Diffraction and SEM-EDS.