Mine Water Management
Launching this business line in 2022 with two engineers bringing over 60 years in combined experience in mine water management, Lynker Intel has established an expert team that strives to grow and become widely recognized across the industry in this area. We understand that the factors controlling water resources vary from mine to mine, and the foundation for sound water management starts with a complete and rigorous water balance of the site. Whatever the situation, Lynker develops and applies realistic analyses and models to mitigate negative impacts and account for the needs and concerns of investors, mine operators, communities, and regulators.
Our scientists and engineers are hands on. We design, manage and conduct the studies that support the analyses and models used in mine water management. In many cases, we meld our field services and in-situ testing expertise with mine operations to leverage their institutional knowledge and site-specific equipment to achieve a highly focused and cost-effective approach for data gathering. We have also employed the same teaming approach with mine shared services to implement and operate corrective actions related to mine water management.
Lynker Intel is experienced at entering a mine water management project at any level from scoping and pre-feasibility to closure. Our staff is highly effective at reviewing data and analyses collected and performed by others; finding the fundamental strengths and weaknesses in their studies and reports; and building on the information at hand to provide solutions. This includes assessment of uncertainty within a previously conducted evaluation and considering future uncertainties not previously assessed such as climate change and ever-tightening environmental regulations. The range of services that we currently offer in mine water management include:
- Conventional subsurface drilling, logging, and piezometer/monitoring well installations;
- Hydrogeologic characterizations including single- and multi-well pump and tracer tests;
- Development of groundwater flow and transport models, from regional to the mine component scale;
- Evaluation and modeling of seepage from TSFs and WRDs;
- Liquid, air and heat flow modeling in heap leach piles;
- GoldSim and CRAM – a Lynker proprietary code;
- Surface water management (contact water and acid rock drainage management);
- Mine water management audits and optimization;
- TSFs and WRDs cover design; and
- 3D transient hydraulic analysis of tailings runout following catastrophic failure.
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