Common Questions

Is your mine under an open pit full of water?

It is not uncommon to have the risk of an open pit full of water above your mine. The chances of there being a connection to underground workings is high whether it is via a major structure, a transmissive orebody or via historic diamond drill holes the risk needs to be managed. Having the correct system in place to protect the underground is essential.  

Is there multiple diamond drill holes drilled from surface that could potentially pass through the open pit? 

A mine is born from an exploration program that sees potentially hundreds of deep diamond drill holes drilled to delineate a resource. At the time of drilling these holes are unlikely to be fully grouted. The open pit is generally mined where these holes have identified an economic orebody and then later in mine life, after the open pit is finished, underground mining may commence. On many occasions the open cut fills up with a volume of water that cannot be accessed. The tails of the historic diamond drill holes, that pass through the open pit, are often intersected underground with devastating results if the mine is not prepared for it.

Have you intersected water underground that can't be explained?

Diamond drilling from the surface may not identify if there is an underground aquifer. The drillers may report that they are loosing water to the country. This can indicate voids or it can also indicate an underground aquifer. Exploration diamond drill holes can potentially form conduits for water to pass from upper unconfined aquifers to lower confined aquifers. In hard rock mines it is common to have confined aquifers that are associated with a certain structures or with the orebody lithology. Some have a low flowrate, others extreme. If you mine below these areas and intersect them you are likely to see initial high water pressures and high flowrates. Underground volume is limited and declines are always the first heading that gets sacrificed. This problem will not go away, it will get increasingly riskier the deeper you mine unless a robust plan to deal with the issue is made.

Is the water ingress into your mine slowing down production?

Water inflows have a varied and wide ranging affect on productivity. This is highlighted when there is a power loss and pumps stop. With a proper drainage plan and an effective recovery plan this issue can be be overcome. 

Have you intersected water and cannot stop it flowing?

90% of all catastrophic water inflows to mining operations occur when development intersects an ungrouted diamond drill hole that is connected to a high volume water source. These sources include an open cut full of water, confined aquifer, unconfined aquifer, or structures connecting both. Once the water pressure gets above 10 Bar with a development hole of 45mm it is almost impossible to manually install a water stopping device in the hole. The Mineright packer was developed to be installed into a hole safely with a jumbo. The technology adopts years of experience from on the job real world scenarios that stop the water and allow for production to continue.