Estimation of the Required Amount of Hydrological Exploration in Lignite Mining Areas on the Basis of Hypothetical Hydrogeological Models

Kaden, S., Reichel, F., & Luckner, L. (1985). Estimation of the Required Amount of Hydrological Exploration in Lignite Mining Areas on the Basis of Hypothetical Hydrogeological Models. IIASA Collaborative Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: CP-85-047

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Abstract

Mine drainage is a necessary but very costly precaution for open-pit lignite mining in sandy aquifers. Consequently, the minimization of the number of drainage wells and their optimal operation become important tasks in designing mine drainage systems. Comprehensive groundwater flow models have to be used, both, for the design of drainage wells, and for the analysis of water management strategies in mining areas . The accuracy of computations with such models depends on the precision of the underlying hydrogeological informations. In order to get these informations detailed and costly hydrogeological explorations have to be done in the mining regions.

The basic informations are obtained using exploration drilling. The cost for hydrogeological exploration are approximately a linear function of the number of exploration bore holes. Therefore the reduction of drilling gets a key role in reducing costs of exploration. This might be done by: increased use of geophysical exploration methods; complex analysis of exploration results using mathematical statistical methods; precise estimation of the required amount of hydrogeological informations.

The paper describes a mathematical approach to support the complex decision making procedure of estimating the optimal amount of hydrogeological exploration with respect to a given mine drainage goal.

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