UNIVERSITY OF SIERRA LEONE

FOURAY BAY COLLEGE

DEPARTMENT OF MINING
ENGINEERING.

MINE DRAINAGE
MING 323

LECTURE NOTES I

Koroma, David
dskkoroma@hotmail.com
+232 79556600
LECTURE 1: MINE DRAINAGE
1.0 Mine Drainage consists of the methods and equipment of controlling the quantity and
quality of mine water.

1.1 Drawdown
a) May take water from nearby wells and
b) May cause ground subsidence
The presence of water in a mine generally increases cost of production.

1.2 Why Mine Drainage Inrush of
water into a mine may cause: a) Loss
of life property; b) Interruption of
production; c) Stoppage of production;
and d) Abandonment of the mine.
1.3 Presence of excessive quantity of water in
a mine. a) Hinders excavation of mine work b)
Hinders handling of materials c) Reduces the
efficiency of workers and equipment; d) Reduce
the stability of rocks and blast holes; e)
Dissolves soluble materials; f) Washes fine and
weak er grou nd s g ) In t e r f e r e s w i t h s o m e
explosives h) Increases the hazard of using
electricity i) Increase the humidity of mines air; j)
Increase corrosion.
2.0 Mine Water: Pit water, mine water or mining water is water that collects in a mine and
which has to be brought to the surface by water management methods in order to enable the
mine to continue working.

2.1 Sources of Mine Water

a) Surface inflow (rainfall, the sea, rivers, and
clay deposits).
b) Natural ground water.
• Water from these sources flow through
porous and permeable formations, faults,
shear zones, diamond drilled holes, shafts,
drives, stopes, raises and ore passes into a
mine.
c) Water pumped into the mine for various
reasons. Fig. 2.1: Sources of Mine Water
 Sources of Mine Water

• The waters of the oceans, seas, rivers and lakes are

evaporated by solar heat and saturate the air with
its vapour. Continually moving air masses carry
the vapours to land where under given the
appropriate conditions, they condense and fall as
atmospheric precipitation on the earth's surface as
shown in Fig. 2.2
• On the earth's surface the precipitation is
separated in three ways:
• Some run-down slopes into streams and rivers and
are carried into streams and oceans.
• Another part is evaporated,
• The other part seeps into the ground to form
Fig. 2.2: Hydrological Circle
ground water.
 Cont’d: Sources of Mine Water
• Groundwater occurs mainly in geologic
formations known as water bearing
formations or aquifer. An aquifer is a
geologic formation containing permeable
material to yield significant quantity of
water to wells and springs. An aquifer
may be overlain or underlain by an
impermeable formation. An aquifer must
be able to store and transmit water.
• The property of a formation to store
water or gas is characterized by its
porosity (). Porosity () of a rock is the
ratio of void spaces in the rock to the
total volume of the rock. The property of
a formation or rock to transmit fluid is
characterized by its permeability.
Cont’d: Sources of Mine Water (Concept of Porosity)
3.0 WATER CONTROL METHODS IN SURFACE MINE

• The presence of groundwater in surface mining
operations often creates serious problems. The most
important is generally a reduction in stability of the
pit slopes. This is caused by pore water pressures
and hydrodynamic shock due to blasting which
reduce the shear strength and seepage pressures,
water in tension cracks and increased unit weight
which increase the shear stress. Groundwater and
seepage also increase the cost of pit drainage,
shipping, drilling and blasting, tyre wear and
equipment maintenance.
• Methods of control include the use of
ho rizo nta l dra ins, b l a s t e d t o e
drains, construction of adits or
drainage tunnels and pumping
from wells in or outside of the pit.
Recent research indicates that
subsurface drainage can be
augmented by applying a vacuum or
by selective blasting.
Horizontal drains are one method which may be used for open pit mine dewatering. These devices consist of
horizon- tal holes which usually, but not necessarily, have slotted PVC screen or pipe placed in them. They are
used to drain slope embankments or water-storing strata behind an imper- vious embankment.

Fig. 2.2: Horizontal drains

A drain located along the toe of a slope or batter specifically for
draining runoff discharged from the slope.

• Toe Drain. Drains or a drainage

channel typically built into the
landward toe of an embankment
or the downstream toe of an
embankment dam. For the
purpose of capturing seepage from
the embankment and conveying it
safely away from the structure.
4. WATER CONTROL METHODS IN UNDERGROUND MINE

Introduction: f) Divert rivers, drain lakes.

g) Build drains on slopes, plant trees in low flat areas to increase evapo-
Generally, it is cheaper to prevent water from getting into a mine than to
transpiration.
pump water from a mine to the surface. Preventive Measures that prevent
h) Catch water in shafts or on an upper level to prevent it going deeper in
water from getting into a mine are always put in place to either reduce or the mine.
eliminate water inflow. i) Intercept water in shallow wells.

4.1 Preventive Measures: j) Keep water from shaft by impervious lining.

a) Locate shaft or excavations in best ground (Least permeable ground,
where direct inflow of water can be minimum). Shaft should not be
positioned in valley, near river, lakes etc.
b) Leave pillars along fissures and faults.
k) Use of grouting method in shafts, drives and crosscuts.
l) Freeze sinking of shaft
m) Caisson method of sinking.
n) Compartment the mine to confine inrush of water.
o) Regularly measure the water inflow rate.

c) Leave enough solid ground between water bodies and mine. p) Drill pilot holes.

d) Work under water (dredging).

e) Plug or case diamond drill holes.

4.2 Active Mine Drainage
• Water in an underground mine can be drained by the
use of only gravity or both gravity and pumps.
Underground mines opened by adits generally use
gravity alone to drain the mine workings.
• Underground mines opened by vertical or inclined
shafts and ramps use both gravity and pumps to
remove mine water to the surface.
• Drainage of Mines Opened By Adit
Water from different parts of the mine is made to flow in
gutters or ditches by gravity to the adits and from the adits to
the ground surface. Some of the design considerations taken
into accounts in the design of a drainage scheme are the
following:
1. Adits slopes towards the collar
2. Drives slope towards adits.
3. Crosscuts slope towards drives.
4. Angle of slope
5. Ditch or gutter width  0.3 m , depth  0.3 m
6. Flow rate of 0.25 - 0.5 m/sec to prevent settling of rock
particles
7. Sumps must be provided for fines settling and treatment of
water.
8. Gutters or ditches must be cleaned periodically and can be
covered in some cases.
4.3 Underground Drainage System
Underground drainage system principally
consists of the following.
• Layout of ditches.
• Pump stations (Main station and
subsidiary stations).
• Piping system.
• Water discharge arrangements on the
ground surface.
• Layout of ditches
All horizontal or near horizontal mine workings are
provided with ditches or gutters. These ditches slope
towards the shaft. The angle of slope should be sufficient
to allow water flow rate of 0.25 – 0.5 m/sec to prevent
settling of rock particles in the ditches. The dimensions
of a ditch are; width  0.3 m, depth  0.3 m.
Drainage of Mines Opened By Vertical or Inclined Shaft

• As shown in Fig. 4.1, water can be

pumped from each level straight to
the ground surface. This scheme is
used when many levels of the mine
are being worked at the same time.
The advantage is that the pumps on
each level work independently. The
disadvantages are that there is a large
number of delivery pipes in the shaft
as well as large number of pumps to
be attended.
Fig.4.1 Underground Pumping Schemes
 Cont’d
• Water from different parts of the mines is
made to flow by gravity in gutters or ditches
into sumps located near shafts. From the
sumps water is pumped to the ground
surface. Each sump is equipped with a
pumping plant – Pump Station.
• A subsidiary pump station serves to pump
water from a different section of a mine to
the main pump station, whilst the main
pump station pumps the total inflow into
the mine to the ground surface. The
underlying principle is to collect and
pump water inflow at the upper levels to
prevent water from getting to the lower
levels.
 Pump Station
• Pump stations are positioned near shafts. The • Pump stations are equipped with:
floor level of pump stations is always lower
1. Pumps and electrical accessories.
than the floor of the nearby shaft station; say
0.5 m, to prevent flooding of equipment at the 2. Sumps.
pump station. For the laying of pipes into the
3. Pipes.
shaft, pump stations are connected to shafts
by raises inclined at about 25 - 30 degrees.
Humans get to a pump station through a
crosscut connecting the shaft station and the
pump station.
 Sumps
• Sumps are excavations in the ground of
pump station and they serve to i)
accumulate water to facilitate constant
pumping rate; ii) accumulate water for
treatment before discharge to the
surface; (e.g. decolouring, desilting,
neutralization of acidity pH) and iii)
Store water incases of power failure.
• A sump capacity should be able to
accumulate 4 - 8 hrs inflow of water
into a mine. Sumps are cleaned from
to time. Fig.4.2 shows a plan view of
a pump station with sumps and Fig.
4.3. Layout of Piping at a pump
station.
Pump Station

Fig. 4.2 Plan View of a pump station with sumps Fig. 4.3 Layout of Pipes at a pump station