Estimating dewatering in an underground mine by using a 3D finite element model

PLoS One. 2020 Oct 29;15(10):e0239682. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239682. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Groundwater inflow to an underground mine will seriously affect its mining plan and engineering geology safety. Groundwater models are powerful tools commonly used in the mines to develop dewatering strategies. Many mines in the Kolwezi area have been present since the 1950s, and groundwater flow patterns have been significantly influenced by mining activities. A mining plan is developed for an underground mine with overturned syncline strata in Kolwezi, Congo. Previous groundwater models using layered homogeneous media lowered model accuracies. A new three-dimensional groundwater model using FEFLOW, consisting of a combined regionally and locally geology models integrating 16 hydrogeological cross-sections and borehole logging data, are formulated to predict the underground dewatering in the study area. A 31-days pumping tests with 3 pumping wells and 28 observation wells are carried out to estimate the hydrogeological properties. The simulated water level data match the observed data rather well. Under 8 scenarios of possible well designs, the model predicts a possible dewatering capacity greater 23,900 m3/d at the initial stage of mining. The concept of the model and its application can be a reference for other mines with complex geology for mining safety in the region of interest.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods*
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • Forecasting / methods*
  • Geology / methods
  • Groundwater / analysis*
  • Mining / methods
  • Water Supply / methods

Grants and funding

Jinchuan Group Co., Ltd and Ruashi Mining SAS are funding hydrogeology researches, and they carried out data analysis, methodology and project administration. North China Engineering Investigation Institute Co., Ltd is responsible for the field investigations and carried out data collection and analysis. China ENFI Engineering Corporation is responsible for the design of dewatering plan and data analysis. This research is also partially financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation Project of China (Grant Number: 41877173) and the National Water Pollution Control and Treatment Science and Technology Major Project (Grant No. 2018NX07109-003). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.