Geological and hydrogeological factors of initiation of water inflow in Yakovlevo Mine

Abstract

History of origination and evolution of mankind reflects an increasing demand and unexampled value of iron ore. Russia is the world's fifth producer of round 120 Mt of iron ore annually and the world's top holder of 59 Bt of iron ore resources. The weight of Yakovlevo deposit in this regard is proved by approximately 9 Bt of high-grade iron ore. The present-day challenge of the national mineral sector is to ensure safe, incremental and sustainable production of iron ore under increasing demand of the day. Meeting such goal eventually assumes proper design solutions connected with complex geology, hydrogeology and geotechnology. One of the problems in this regard is safe mineral extraction under undrained high-pressure aquifers, which includes stability of underground openings and reliable prediction of water inflow. This study uses specific geological and hydrogeological data of Yakovlevo deposit, as well as the previous design solutions to analyze adjustability of water inflow map at the stage of mine operation toward further forecasting of hydrogeological conditions of mining. The drainage and monitoring guidelines should be preceded by checking the output fidelity using a hydrodynamics method and the numerical geoflow modeling. However, it is alre ady possible to state that the promising methods of hydrogeomechanical monitoring of the impermeable strata at Yakovlevo deposit are the high-frequent measurements of groundwater pressure and chemistry using loggers, and the regular measurement of deformations and permeabilities at check points. The recommendations on hydrogeological monitoring development in mineral mining are formulated.