Pit water, mine water or mining water is

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

that collects in a

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

and which has to be brought to the surface by

water management Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slightl ...

methods in order to enable the mine to continue working.

Origin

Although all water that enters pit workings originates from

atmospheric precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

, the miner distinguishes between

surface water Surface water is water located on top of land forming terrestrial (inland) waterbodies, and may also be referred to as ''blue water'', opposed to the seawater and waterbodies like the ocean. The vast majority of surface water is produced by prec ...

and

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

. Surface water enters the pit through openings in the mine at the surface of the ground, such as tunnel portals or shaft entrances. During heavy rain, water seeps into the earth and forms ground water when it meets layers of impervious rock. Pit water is mainly

interstitial water An interstitial space or interstice is a space between structures or objects. In particular, interstitial may refer to: Biology * Interstitial cell tumor * Interstitial cell, any cell that lies between other cells * Interstitial collagenase ...

and groundwater that seeps into the

mine workings Mining is the Extractivism, extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein (geology), vein, coal mining, seam, quartz reef mining, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of ...

.Carl Hartmann: Handwörterbuch der Berg-, Hütten- u. Salzwerkskunde der Mineralogie und Geognosie. Third volume, 2nd edition, Buchhandlung Bernhard Friedrich Voigt, Weimar, 1860

Literature

* * * *

References

{{Authority control Water management in mining Underground mining Geochemistry Hydrogeology

Origin

See also

Literature

References