2.3 Control and treatment

Several techniques of "control and treatment" are available to manage groundwater, for example, zero-level discharge. As a basic rule of thumb, if one has to control and treat water in a mining area, the approach should be to keep pollution contained in the mine itself. Their control beyond the mine boundaries is neither economical nor manageable. Depending on the problem encountered, groundwater infiltration or discharge should be handled and aquifer contamination be avoided, for example, oxidation and leaching of mine drainage produce high iron and sulfate concentrations and low pH in groundwater.

For the sustainable development of mining areas, the main source of pollution should be traced, and by applying chemical and bacteriological methods of treatment, water pollution shall be dealt or treatment methodology applied. The cost of treatment and risk involved must be checked for viability of adopted measures deployed to control pollution. To control mine water discharge and treat it for pollution abatement, Intelligent Mine Water Management (IMwM), a solution for mine water management, is extremely scientific in approach (Figure 3), which can be enforced by the mining industry, regulators, and stakeholders world over.

As depicted in Figure 3, IMwM when expanded fully (see points below) will explain past, present, and future of control and treatment thereby helpful in maintaining an acceptable standard of living—now and in the future for benefits to the mining industry. All technical interest related to water in mines, including the burning and current topics, are covered under the following:


Mining of Minerals and Groundwater in India DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85309

Figure 3.

Intelligent mine water management (IMwM) (courtesy: Christian Wolkersdorfer, IMWA).

	- Mine water monitoring and treatment
	- Microbiology of mine waters and bio-leaching
	- Stable isotopes in mine waters (tracer test, etc.)
	- Mine water limnology/pit lakes

Best mining practices (BMP) to curb and contain mine water pollution, groundwater lowering, radius/area of influence, groundwater recharge, induced

infiltration, cone of depression, water table lowering, mine drainage, consequences of dewatering and management, etc. are all covered in it.

Recycling concept rationally articulated for comprehensive short-term as well as long-term planning is very useful for water control, treatment, and management provided their effective implementation is done in field.
