Mining and regional water security: Linking site operations to regional water problems and solutions

Following six years in the UK water sector, Neil completed an MSc in Environmental Engineering followed by a PhD in water quality numerical modelling, both at Imperial College London. He remained at Imperial for 14 years, including directing an MSc Hydrology program and teaching hydraulics, hydrology and computational analysis. His water research experience has included investigating agricultural, mining, urban, natural and extra-terrestrial water systems, focussing mainly on understanding the impacts of land use and climate change on hydrology and water resources, latterly in mine regions. He is now approaching the end of his ARC Future Fellowship, “Water Sensitive Mining”.

Parts of the mining sector are quickly recognising the risks and opportunities associated with their role in regional water systems, and are endeavouring to be better “water stewards”. Advances in unit process technology and efficient on-site operations underpin this effort, but increasing attention is being directed at the wider outside-the-fence and beyond-closure challenges. This seminar presents three diverse examples of research supporting the sector’s endeavours. The first example is the PhD of Juan Ossa Moreno, examining the common perception that better mine site water management can free up water with significant economic benefit for other water users, using a case study in Chile. The second example is an ongoing PhD of Nena Bulovic that illustrates how the Antamina mine in Peru has become an ambassador for Andean climate science as well as improving understanding of the site’s climate-related risks. The third example is the CWiMI-CMLR collaboration on long-term (100 year +) prediction of salt generation from coal mine spoils in Queensland, supported by ACARP and the PhD of Melinda Hilton. All three examples illustrate the challenges of and solutions to using mine operations data to upscale to time and space scales that address mining’s “water stewardship” challenge.