- Decant from underground mine
Contamination of the aquifers and surrounding surface water resources is often a primary source of concern in new as well as existing developments. Particularly, the development of acid-mine-drainage (AMD) is often the focus of clients and affected parties alike in the mining industry. Tailings storage facilities, discard dumps and rehabilitated areas can be significant sources of contamination in the mining environment and the associated impacts have to be properly characterised and quantified.
We follow a detailed and systematic approach to characterise and quantify the potential impacts from your development and operational activities on the surrounding groundwater environment. The changes in water chemistry are quantified using the appropriate techniques which may include:
- Water chemical analysis;
- Static and kinetic leach testing of elements from rock material; and
- Acid-Base-Accounting (ABA) testing.
The results of the ABA tests allow us to quantify the potential of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD). The leach testing results provide an indication of the elements that will be present in elevated concentrations due to the operational activities, and can give an indication of the levels of those concentrations.
The outcome of a contamination study is a detailed holistic assessment and quantification of the pre-development groundwater quality and the dynamic long term chemical character of water originating from the development.
These studies often incorporate a variety of phases such as:
- Characterisation of the baseline groundwater environment (qualities, flow patterns etc);
- Chemical characterisation of the contaminant source and the expected long term quality through contaminant analysis, AMD, and kinetic or static leach testing; and
- Quantifying the impacts over time using 3-D numerical flow and contaminant transport modelling.
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