COMPUTER DESIGN OF UNDERGROUND MINE DEWATERING SYSTEMS

Water is encountered at the majority of underground mines, both over t heir lifetime and during each stage of development and production. The dewatering system is one of the most important and costly components of an underground mining operation and it is often not well designed a nd analyzed. An effective design of a mine dewatering system will grea tly reduce its energy cost as well as improve working conditions and r educe production costs. A computer-based system, called Qpump, has bee n developed to assist the underground operator to effectively design a nd/or assess over-all and local mine dewatering systems. The design fe atures and principles used in the development of Qpump are introduced and an example which illustrates typical applications is presented.