Water resources, including groundwater, are under threat globally from abstraction and pollution, making studies of water flows ever more urgent. South Africa has a growing population, a relatively dry climate and abundant mining activity, all of which increase the importance of water management. Mooiplaas Dolomite Quarry, southeast of Pretoria, has been mining metallurgical grade dolomite since 1969 and is located in the productive karst aquifers of the Malmani Subgroup, Transvaal Supergroup.

A new mining site sit

Mining site remnants are everlasting and impact the groundwater regime on a long term scale. An integrated approach to geoscience is necessary due to the complexity of nature and the unknown relationships that must be discovered to further the understanding of impacts on the natural environment. Furthermore, groundwater resources are negatively impacted by mining activities affecting the groundwater quality and quantity. Underground coal mining can be accompanied by roof failure events.

The Elandsfontein Phosphate Mine is situated midway between the Langebaan Lagoon and the town of Hopefield. It is located on the Cape West Coast, within the Saldanha Bay Municipality. The mine is positioned within the Elandsfontein Aquifer Unit – which comprises an upper and lower aquifer separated by an aquitard. The economic phosphate layer is situated within the saturated zone of the Upper Aquifer Unit. There are fresh water inflows into the Langebaan Lagoon and all measures must be taken to ensure the natural geohydrological flows are not impacted.

It's been said that you cannot manage what you cannot measure. This is especially true with groundwater management; where we have limited data allowing us to 'see' the underground source. All over the world, people are spending aquifers full of money (bucket loads) on monitoring programmes and hydro census's. They capture borehole locations, water levels, abstraction rates, rainfall measurements and water quality analysis, then typically store the product, the deliverable, their valuable data, in a massive amount of spreadsheets.