Understanding salt dynamics to facilitate water reuse on coal mine sites (2006-2009)

Re-use of water on coal mine sites results in salt concentration and increased coupling of site water reticulation and climate. Salt concentration leads to environmental and operational (coal washing) issues requiring increased effort with water management. This creates a barrier to water reuse. This project will examine two coal mine sites to understand the sources of salt and their introduction into the site water system. A combination of one-off and event-based sampling of chemistry and isotopes, and their integration into a mass balance model will be used. The industry outcome will be guidelines for forecasting water quality signatures given particular mining and climate conditions.