A Tasmanian river system poisoned by more than a century of sub-standard waste management at nearby mines is serving as a classroom for students likely to work in the mining industry.

Dr Anita Parbhakar-Fox and students at Mount Lyell. ( ABC News: Laura Beavis )

Earth science students from around Australia and researchers from the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Transforming the Mining Value Chain at the University of Tasmania recently audited the health of the King and Queen rivers near Queenstown, on the state's west coast.

Research hub director Professor David Cooke said the trip provided vital evidence to students of the impacts of sub-standard mine waste management.

"We bring our students out here to teach them the mistakes of the past, so that they can learn from those to ensure that the next generation does not repeat those mistakes," he said.

Mining has poisoned the King and Queen river systems in Tasmania. ( ABC TV: ABC TV )

The river has been polluted by waste materials and run-off from mines on Mount Lyell near Queenstown, where copper and gold has been mined since the 1880s.

For most of that time, waste products were discharged into nearby creeks and rivers, with waste rock left exposed on the mountainside, creating acid mine drainage that also enters local waterways.

Copper Mines of Tasmania took over the last remaining mine in 1995 and introduced modern waste management and environmental remediation techniques.

Over three days earth science students measured, sampled and analysed water from the Queen and King rivers and their delta.

University of Tasmania geology student Isaac Button said investigating the rivers made a strong impression on him.

"I'm looking at a lot of case studies as well as a lot of new concepts, a lot of theory to build on ... what's been done in the past, learn from the mistakes, and make things better for future generations," he said.

Professor David Cooke hopes the visit helps students learn from the mistakes of the past. ( ABC News: Laura Beavis )

Students inspired to 'crack this problem'

Professor Cooke said dealing with historic and future mine waste is a global challenge he hoped his students would help tackle.

"We challenge them, we say to them we want you to be the generation who can crack this problem," he said.

La Trobe University PhD candidate Farah Ali's research focuses on minimising acid drainage from mine waste rocks.

"Coming out here to see Mount Lyell and a tremendous amount of waste rock was just great," she said.

"I could really see how much my research could benefit the environment and help with the remediation of all of this contamination as you can see out here, produced by the tailings coming out of the mine."

Decades of copper and gold mining have left a legacy of acidic pollution. ( ABC News: Laura Beavis )

Research hub fellow Dr Anita Parbhakar-Fox said there is potential to remove and reprocess material from the river system, but cautions such a project would require significant preliminary research and government funding.

"Historically, the mineral processing technologies that we used, perhaps they didn't recover all of the grade that's existing in those materials," she said.

"If we used modern-day processing technologies, we might be able to recover a bit more value from them."

Later this year, PhD students will begin analysing metals in the King River.

"As soon as we can understand element deportment we can sort of start thinking about what the future options for these materials could be", Dr Parbhakar-Fox said.

"If removing or treating the source is an option, then we can start to understand how we can reprocess the materials."