Integrating Technologies for Mine Water Management and Monitoring

Advancements in disparate technologies are presenting opportunities for mine operators to increase the quality and reduce the costs associated with managing and monitoring mining-related water.  Water issues including dewatering activities, milling and leaching processes, tailings impoundments, water treatment and disposal, reclamation, and long-term monitoring can be handled more efficiently by taking advantage of technologic developments in several areas.  First, the remote sensing industry is providing new probes that can measure and record important water parameters and new telemetric capabilities that enable cellular and web-based access.  Second, the advancement of geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), database, and web technologies are automating the acquisition, storage, and real-time access to billions of historic data records.  Third, data analysis and visualization software are becoming more interactive and use hydrogeologic equations to view ground water conditions in real time.  This paper will present a synopsis of these technologies by demonstrating the import, query, and visualization of pressure-transducer and GIS data for a typical mining application.  The paper will also present a vision of advancements in remote sensing, satellite imagery, and computer processing in the near future and how these will improve the management and monitoring of mine-related water.  The concepts of neural networks to predict ground water conditions under myriad weather and extraction scenarios and “smart” pumps and conveyance systems will be discussed.