Prospects for the Use of the Silurian Carbonate Sequences of the Alakit-Markhinskiy Kimberlite Field for Drainage Water Injection

Abstract

The development of the unique Yubileinaya pipe diamond deposit is accompanied by the formation of highly mineralized drainage waters, represented by practically unaltered natural brines of the Lower Ordovician and Upper Cambrian aquifers. Currently, drainage waters are injected into intrapermafrost collectors used as the main brine-absorbing structure. The lithofacies conditions of the Alakit-Markhinskoe kimberlite field has been chosen because of presence of the most representative Silurian sections in Western Yakutia, overlain by members of Carboniferous and Permian terrigenous deposits, as well as fairly thick trapp effusive fields (50–150 m). The study of cryohydrogeological conditions in the carbonate and terrigenous-carbonate rocks of the Silurian was carried out in the period 2014-2022 using standard methods to assess their potential for intrapermafrost reservoirs formation. In result of the studies, the main lithological types of the Silurian rocks, which are capable of forming an intrapermafrost technogenic aquifer due to the injection of drainage water and providing the safe development of the deposit to the entire design depth, are described.