Using Permafrost for Pumping Drainage Water from Primary Diamond Deposits on the Example of the Noyabrskiy Site (Aykhal Mine)

Abstract

Thick permafrost strata in the territory of the Yakutsk diamondiferous province make it possible to take into account and use this natural favorable factor in environmental protection. For the environmentally safe exploitation of the fields, ALROSA is injecting drainage water into the existing and developed in the permafrost strata reservoirs. Consequently, an important research problem is assessment of the resulting impact of injection on the state of the geological environment by designing a method for predicting the position of the technogenic horizon for the estimated life of the field. The parameters of the planned distribution of the injected drainage water were obtained by the geophysical methods and study of the regime of the piezometric surface. The capacity of the drainage brine injection site was estimated based on the injection results in the mode of pilot operations. The conducted studies and calculations allow us concluding that the use of the method of drainage water pumping into permafrost from the Aykhal mine on the Noyabrskiy site made it possible to reduce the impact of mining operations on the geological environment and surroundings, eliminating the possibility of brines to contaminate the surface water. Key words: permafrost