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MINE DEWATERING

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Dewatering and groundwater control is an important

Dewatering for
Basement

22 May 2014

part of many open pit and underground mines.

When mining below the water table groundwater is
an inevitable challenge. On some projects
groundwater will be a minor impediment that can be
dealt with on an ad-hoc basis. On other projects, and
in other geological settings, planning and execution
of dewatering may be fundamental to the viability of
the mine and may require very large resources and
management.

Construction
12 March 2016
Groundwater can be
a signicant problem
when excavating for
basement
construction. This
blog discusses the
available techniques

Unfortunately, in the past mining projects have

that can be used to

suered setbacks (such as large slope failures) or

dewater during

even had to be abandoned (e.g. due to ooding) as

basement

result of poorly managed groundwater and

construction.

dewatering issues. However, this need not be the

Read More

case; with careful design and planning groundwater

can be controlled, by various means, to provide safe
mining conditions and a good return on the money

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spent.
This blog discusses good practice in mine
dewatering.
OBJECTIVES OF MINE DEWATERING
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It is essential that the objectives of mine dewatering

are understood from the early stages (feasibility
study or earlier) of a mining project. The objectives of
mine dewatering are not always as simple as
keeping the mine dry.
There are two objectives of mine dewatering. A given
mine site may need to focus on one or both of these
objectives:

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1. General mine dewatering (control of inows

and lowering of groundwater levels). This is the
classic dewatering activity which involves
intercepting or collecting groundwater and
surface water inows and pumping the water
away to create workably dry conditions in the
relevant areas or levels of the mine. This can
involve pumping very large quantities of water.
Mine dewatering can also involve measures to
keep water out (groundwater exclusion
methods, such as slurry walls or grout
curtains) which can reduce inows.
2. Pore water pressure reduction
(depressurization around open pit slopes, pit
bottoms and shafts and roadways). This is a
more subtle objective which recognizes that
high pore water pressures can have a
signicant destabilizing eect on slopes and
underground openings, not only in
unconsolidated deposits and soft rocks, but
also in fractured hard rocks. Depressurization
systems are used to lower pore water
pressures, which increase eective stresses
and increase the shear strength of the rock.
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This has benets for geotechnical design, for

example by allowing steeper open pit slopes
without a reduction in factor of safety. In many
cases the water ow rate from
depressurization systems will be relatively low,
but they can have a dramatic eect on
geotechnical properties and pit slope stability.

BENEFITS OF MINE DEWATERING

Where a planned programme of mine dewatering is
deployed, the mine will typically see several benets,
including:
General improvement in working conditions and
eciency: better tracking and diggability, reduced
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downtime due to pit ooding.

Improved slope stability and safety: lowering of
groundwater levels and reduction in pore water
pressures can allow steeper open pit slope angles to
be used, while maintaining or increasing factors of
safety.
Reduced blasting costs: lowering groundwater
levels in advance of working will provide dry blast
holes, reducing the need for more costly emulsion
explosives.
Reduction in haulage costs: Dry ore and waste rock
weigh less than wet material, so dewatering of rock
provides a haulage cost saving.
Mine dewatering costs money, and the major capital
spend for dewatering is often early in the project
during pre-production or production ramp up. It is
essential that the objectives andpotential benets
for the mine in question are clearly identied at an
early stage. This will make sure that the most cost
eective dewatering scheme can be developed, and
can also be phased to match the mine plan. There
may be opportunities to delay installation of some
elements of the dewatering to improve cash ow,
but equally it can be a false economy to delay
dewatering works until the last minute, in case
unexpected geological conditions create delays or
reveal new hydrogeological challenges.
Successful planning of mine dewatering requires a
hydrogeological assessment of the site and its
surroundings. This may be achieved through desk
study, borehole investigations, pumping tests and
numerical groundwater modelling. It is also essential
that the most appropriate dewatering techniques are
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selected and used, because the choice of technique

can have a huge inuence on the eectiveness of the
dewatering.
POSSIBLE APPROACHES TO MINE DEWATERING
Mine dewatering can be achieved using a range of
techniques, depending on the geology and the type
of mine. The choice of technique may also be
inuenced by the capability of local drillers and
contractors or the availability of equipment.

Groundwater Control by Pumping

Potential techniques include:
In-pit pumping used to pump from sump areas
or wells located within the mine.
Perimeter dewatering wells used to intercept
lateral groundwater ow into the pit and to lower
groundwater levels in advance of mining.
Groundwater Control by Exclusion
Potential techniques include:
Cut-o walls slurry walls used to exclude
groundwater from shallow alluvial or drift deposits,
or to seal o preferential ow along permeable
strata.
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Grouting and articial ground freezing used to

seal o preferential groundwater pathways, or to
reduce ground permeability in advance of shaft
sinking or roadway development.
Groundwater Control for Depressurization
Potential techniques include:
Depressurization drains inclined or horizontal
drains used to provide permeable pathways to allow
trapped or slowly draining groundwater behind pit
slopes to bleed o into the pit.
Vertical drains vertical boreholes drilled and lled
with permeable material (sand or gravel) to provide a
permeable downward pathway through low
permeability layers or other geological features
which would otherwise prevent vertical groundwater
ow. These vertical drains can be used to help
perched water in shallow strata drain downward into
deeper strata that have been depressurized by
pumping.
Relief wells vertical boreholes drilled and lled
with permeable material (sand or gravel) to provide a
permeable upward pathway to relieve high pore
water pressures beneath the base of a pit or below a
mine level to reduce the risk of hydraulic uplift or
heave.
Drainage adits or galleries constructed to act as
large scale drainage features behind pit slopes for
open pit mines.
Surface Water Control
Surface water must also be controlled to allow
ecient mining operations. Runo (including spring
snow thaw in cold regions) from the surrounding
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land surface must be diverted away from the mine,

for example by using collector drains and diversion
bunds. Within a mine any surface water must be
controlled by the drains and sumps to collect the
water away from working areas. In areas aected by
tropical storms and monsoons the surface water
pumping system may have to have a very large
pumping capacity and sump storage volume to deal
with storm events.

MINE DEWATERING TECHNIQUES BASED ON

PUMPING
In-pit pumping
This is the simplest form of mine dewatering by
pumping, with potentially the lowest capital costs.
This technique allows groundwater to enter the mine
(open pit or underground mine), where it is directed
(via drains and ditches) to sumps, from where it is
pumped away to the surface. The drawback with this
approach is that water levels cannot easily be
lowered in advance of mining; hence there will
always be water and wet areas within the lower
sections of the mine, which can constrain the choices
of mining methods and reduce operational
eciency. Furthermore, in-pit pumping will tend to
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produce dirty water, with signicant suspended

solids content, which may require treatment to
remove sediment prior to discharge.
In-pit pumping is normally carried out by robust
pumps capable of pumping dirty water. Pump sets
may be of the electric submersible type or of the selfpriming surface pump type. Mine dewatering pump
sets typically have capacities in the range 20 to 200
l/s (72 to 720 m3/h), with maximum delivery heads of
150 m. Higher ow rates can be achieved with
multiple units in parallel. For deeper open pits,
higher discharge heads are achieved by arranging
pumps in series, with booster pumps located
partway up the pit slopes.
Deep wells pumped by submersible pumps
This method involves drilling deep wells (most
commonly using rotary drilling rigs, by either reverse
circulation or direct circulation methods, depending
on diameter), into which suitable perforated and
unperforated well liner is installed, surrounded by
any necessary lter media. The wells are then
typically pumped by electrically-driven slimline
borehole submersible pumps. There are two main
advantages to this technique. Firstly, appropriately
designed and constructed wells which have been
suitably developed will normally produce clean
water with very little suspended solids, thereby
reducing water treatment requirements. Secondly,
an array of wells can be used as a pre-drainage
system to lower groundwater levels in advance of
mining, and to maintain groundwater levels below
the base of an open pit, or below upper levels in an
underground mine. This can allow mining to be
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carried out in very dry conditions, with

corresponding improvements in eciency for
blasting, excavation and haulage. The downside of
the use of deep wells is the relatively high capital
cost associated with well installation.
Deep wells can be installed to depths in excess of
500 m, with nished internal diameters typically in
the range 150 to 450mm. Borehole pump capacities
range from 1 l/s (3.6 m3/h) to 100 l/s (360 m3/h).
Slope depressurization drains
In some hydrogeological settings, dewatering of the
mine to provide dry mining conditions is not
sucient to ensure adequate geotechnical stability
of the pit slopes and other key areas. There may be
geological features such as faults or bedding planes
which prevent the slopes from draining even when
the main aquifers are depressurized, or it may simply
be that the rock is of such low hydraulic conductivity
that pore water pressure reductions are very slow. In
open pits drainage of pit slopes can be improved by
drilling an array of sub-horizontal drains into the
slopes to allow water pressures to reduce by
bleeding o small quantities of water into the pit.
Slope drains are normally drilled at diameters of 50
to 100 mm using specialist horizontal drilling rigs.
Drilled lengths to up to 300 m are possible. In
underground mines, drain holes may be drilled
outward from roadways and access declines to aid
depressurization of the rock to improve stability. It
may be possible to connect owing drain holes to a
separate clean water pumping system, to reduce the
volumes of dirty water requiring treatment that are
generated by the mine.
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Specialist drainage methods

Less commonly, more specialist dewatering methods
are used in open pit mines. The can include lines of
wellpoints or eductor wells used to stabilize ne
grained granular deposits (silts or sands) where they
are exposed in the pit slopes, or drainage tunnels
and adits driven near the open pit to promote
drainage in ssured rocks of low hydraulic
conductivity.
MANAGEMENT OF WATER DISCHARGES
A key aspect of mine dewatering systems is that they
will generate water from pumped wells or sumps,
from owing drains, and from surface water
collection systems. Some of this water will be dirty
water and will require some form of treatment (most
commonly to remove suspended solids) before it can
be used or disposed of. Some of the water may be
clean water requiring little or no treatment. As a
general rule, it is good practice to maximize the
proportion of clean water and minimize the
proportion of dirty water.
Pumped water may be directed to:
Use on the mine site for mineral processing or
tailings management.
Use on site for dust suppression.
Disposal by discharge to surface water bodies.
Disposal by re-injection or re-inltration into the
aquifer by re-injection wells or open inltration
ponds.
Use on site (following treatment) for drinking
water supplies in the mine camp and facilities.
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On some mine sites the water demand will exceed

the dewatering ow rate and the site will not have a
net discharge, and may have to import water to top
up process use. On other sites the dewatering ow
rate will exceed the water required for on-site use
and the excess watermust bedisposed of. If
dewatering ow rates and water demands vary
seasonally then a mine may have a water balance
surplus in one part of the year and a decit later in
the year.
Use and disposal of water from dewatering will be
strongly inuenced the quality of the pumped water,
including pH, salinity and dissolved minerals, and
must be compliant with local and national
regulations applicable at the mine site.
GROUNDWATER INVESTIGATIONS
Mine dewatering requires a thorough understanding
of the hydrogeology and hydrology of the site. There
are several groundwater investigation techniques
which can play a key role in the development of mine
dewatering systems, including:
Hydrogeological desk studies
Desk top studies and research into existing
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information such as geological maps, and

information from neighbouring mines, can be a very
cost eective way to identify groundwater problems
at an early stage. Numerical groundwater modelling
can be used to assess likely dewatering ow rates,
distance of inuence and the potential for adverse
environmental impacts.
Installation of monitoring wells
Monitoring wells and specialist piezometers
installed in advance of dewatering can provide
valuable data on hydrogeological conditions, and can
be used for permeability testing or groundwater
quality sampling.
Pumping tests
Pumping tests are a reliable way of determining
representative mass hydraulic conductivity of soils
and rocks, and of providing other information on
groundwater conditions, including obtaining
representative groundwater quality samples for
testing. The tests involve pumping a well at a
controlled rate, while monitoring ow rate and
drawdown of groundwater levels. Pumping tests may
involve between a few days to several weeks of
continuous pumping. Several wells may be pumped
simultaneously to see the cumulative drawdown
eect (this is sometimes known as a dewatering
trial).
Borehole permeability tests
A range of tests can be carried out in individual
boreholes, including rising and falling head tests,
constant head tests, Lugeon tests, Lefranc tests and
packer tests. When carried out in accordance with
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relevant published standards and interpreted

appropriately, such tests can provide some
indication of hydraulic conductivity values and
groundwater conditions.
CONCLUSION
Mining below groundwater level presents many
challenges and can result in increased mining costs
and reduced eciency. However, if there is a good
programme of hydrogeological characterization and
if the dewatering and depressurization methods are
carefully selected, safe and ecient mines can be
developed to great depth below the water table.

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