For the last three decades, high density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembranes (GMBs) have played a crucial rule as the primary barrier in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. In parallel, there have been extensive investigations into the service life of HDPE GMBs in the landfills. More recently, HDPE and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) GMBs, have been introduced to wide range of applications in the mining industry. Mining applications (especially heap leach pads) are introducing extreme exposure conditions especially in terms of the pH of the solution in contact with the GMB liners. Leach solutions from copper, uranium and nickel heap leaching may have a pH between 0.5 and 2.0. To provide insight regarding the durability of HDPE and LLDPE GMBs in leachate relevant to some mining applications, a study has been imitated to examine the effects of: pH, GMB type, antioxidant package and GMB thickness on the service life of
GMB in mining applications. In this paper, antioxidant depletion rates for a LLDPE GMB incubated in a solution with a pH
of 0.5 are presented and a preliminary extrapolation to field temperature is provided. A comparison is made between the
antioxidant depletion results for the LLDPE GMB with those obtained under similar conditions for an HDPE GMB.