The importance of water management at mines in protecting the environment: principles and some examples from the Top End

P. H. Woods
Institution of Engineers, Australia, Barton ACT, 21-24 Apr 1996

The environmental aspects of mine water management systems have become as important as reliability of water supply in mining. This is illustrated by four case studies of mines at Ranger, Pine Creek, Rustler's Roost and the McArthur River near Borroloola NT. Water management systems must be included in mine design during the permitting stage and demonstrated by monitoring during operations. Such systems must be in the highly variable climate of the wet-dry tropics. Intelligent water management reduces or eliminates pollution problems and reduces operational and rehabilitation costs. There is a general move towards no-contaminated-release water management systems and where this is feasible it has many advantages in reducing or eliminating adverse effects off site and greatly simplifies regulation.