The Minewater management tool (MWMT) supports the drafting of mine abandonment plans and the development of new application for abandoned mines such as using minewater for heating and cooling purposes as well as for heat/cold storage. Additionally, the modelling tool is well suited to predict mine water discharge, including chemical composition including the dispersion of chemicals in flooded or flooding mines.
Minewater Water Management Tool
The mine water management tool consists of a fast-computing, flexible and accurate software that can handle the typical geometry of a mine, such as galleries, tunnels and shafts. The MWMT is a custom-made model based on the EPANET code from EPA (Rossman 2000). The conceptual site model created using our product allows integrating the complex geometry and advective flows as well as fluid/rock heat interaction to predict adequately the temperature and chemical changes through time. Furthermore the MWMT defines the capacity of the mine water system as a function of the variable heat demands at surface.
Mine water connection
Advantages
Optimize the closure of the mine by drafting mine abandonment plans
Predict and follow the flooding history
Predict chemical composition; disperion of chemicals in flooded/flooding mines
Assess
the
potential
to use local available low valued renewable energy for geothermal applications;
Design of the well field configuration for geothermal applications
Guaranty the sustainability of the minewater geothermal reservoir
Define countermeasures to reduce environmental risks caused by rising mine water and leaching from tailings and settling ponds on groundwater and surface water pollution
For whom?
Mining companies
Project developers
Authorities
Use of minewater for geothermal & heat/cold storage
LRM NV (Belgium)
Heerlen (The Netherlands)
Stoke-on-Trent City Council (UK)
Koninklijke DSM NV (The Netherlands)
European Commission –6th Framework Program
City of Yellowknife (Canada)
