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Determining mine water sources and mixing ratios affected by mining in a coastal gold mine, in China

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Abstract

This study aimed to identify the potential water sources of the Sanshandao Gold Mine and determine the end-member mixing ratios, to prevent seawater intrusion and water inrush disasters. Based on the hydrogeological setting, an end-member model of mine water based on the hydrogeochemical and isotopic analysis was established. Then, the maximum likelihood method was used to estimate the mixing ratios of water sources at each site and analyze the evolution rules of mine water. The results indicated that this method can effectively identify the water sources and calculate the mixing ratios. The fitting results between the calculated and measured values of the stable isotopes and ion concentrations were good. The mean values of deviation for δ18O, δD, K+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl−, SO42−, and Ca2++Mg2+ were 0.01, 0.02, 0.17, 0.00, − 0.23, 0.38, 0.00, 0.04, and − 0.02, respectively. The mixing ratio results demonstrate that seawater is the main component of the mixed water and the proportion varies with the mining activities; especially in 2011 and 2014, the seawater had a high proportion in the entire mine. The effect of mining on mixing was studied by dividing the study area. Both horizontal and longitudinal mixing were analyzed. The water sites located in the south of F3 (this area is less affected by mining) had a low proportion of seawater. The main range affected by fresh water was at the 465-m sublevel and above. The water flow around F3 was greatly affected by mining, and the proportion of seawater around F3 fluctuates greatly every year; so F3 should be monitored more frequently.

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41831293) and the National Key Research Projects of China (Grant No. 2016YFC0402802). The authors are grateful for this support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Xueliang Duan, Fengshan Ma, Haijun Zhao, Jie Guo, Hongyu Gu, Rong Lu & Guowei Liu

  2. Institutions of Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Xueliang Duan, Fengshan Ma, Haijun Zhao, Jie Guo, Hongyu Gu, Rong Lu & Guowei Liu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xueliang Duan, Hongyu Gu, Rong Lu & Guowei Liu

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  1. Xueliang Duan
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  4. Jie Guo
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Correspondence to Fengshan Ma.

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Duan, X., Ma, F., Zhao, H. et al. Determining mine water sources and mixing ratios affected by mining in a coastal gold mine, in China. Environ Earth Sci 78, 299 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8310-4

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