Reliable Mine Water Technology

Abstract

Mine planning, permitting and operation require reliable water technology in all its aspects: water inflow, water use, water disposal and discharge, and water impact. Mine water evaluations are relied upon by mining companies, mine regulators and the public to determine whether the mine is technically feasible, optimally designed, financially sound, socially acceptable, and environmentally benign. Review of the water management performance of mines world-wide indicates that the results obtained from mine water evaluations are frequently unreliable. The magnitude of error is often significant, and the direction of the error is usually to underestimate mine inflow, water usage, water contamination, water discharge, and/or environmental impacts. Examples of mine water evaluations where the results have proven to be unreliable were used to formulate and illustrate a set of general principles that should be applied to every mine water evaluation to ensure that the results reflect the full range of possible outcomes, with that range centered on the most likely outcome. Mine water evaluations performed using these principles can be demonstrably reliable, credible to all of the mine stakeholders, and improve the profitability, public acceptance, and environmental protection of mining projects.