Dynamic characteristics and evolution laws of underground brine in Mahai salt lake of Qaidam Basin during mining process

Abstract

In the late stage of underground brine mining in salt lakes, the method of injecting fresh water is often used to extract the salt from the brine storage medium. This method of freshwater displacement breaks the original water-rock equilibrium and changes the evolution process of the original underground brine. To explore the mechanism of salt release in saline water-bearing media under conditions of relatively fresh lake water dissolution, this paper analyzes the changes in the chemical parameters of brine from 168 sampling points in the Mahai salt lake in the Qaidam Basin at three stages (before exploitation, during exploitation, and late exploitation) by correlation analysis, ion ratio analysis, and other methods and investigate the variations in porosity and the evolution laws of brine. The results show that the changes in the main ion content and brine mineralization during the exploitation process are small. The changes in Ca²⁺ content are significant due to the low solubility of calcium minerals, the precipitation of gypsum during the mixing process, and the adsorption of cations by alternating with Ca²⁺. Primary intergranular pore skeletons are easily corroded to form secondary pores, which increase the geological porosity. Na⁺ and Cl^- are the dominant ions in the brine in the study area, but the concentration of Ca2 + decreased significantly under the influence of mining, by 41.7% in the middle period and 24.5% in the late period. The correlation between Ca²⁺ and salinity changes significantly in different mining stages, and the reason for the decrease of Ca²⁺ may be due to the influence of mineral dissolution, mixing, and anion-cation exchange. The porosity of the layer in the study area showed the opposite trend of Ca²⁺, and the porosity increased first and then decreased. The innovation of this paper lies in analyzing the reasons and mechanisms of the disturbance of artificial dissolution mining on stratum structure by comparing the hydrochemical characteristics and porosity of underground brine storage media in three different mining stages. The research in this paper provides a theoretical basis for the calculation of brine resource reserves and the sustainable development of underground brine in salt lake areas.

Keywords: Dissolution mining Calcium ion; Qaidam Basin; Rock salt medium; Salt Lake; Underground brine.