Physical modeling of electrometric control of leaks from the pregnant solution pond

Abstract

The search for leaks from various hydraulic structures is a topical task of electrometry. Pregnant solution pond is one of the objects of electrometric control. They accumulate gold-enriched solutions. Identification of a breach in the waterproofing layer of a pond is possible by the method of electrical resistivity tomography with the measurement of induced polarization. Physical simulations were carried out to determine the nature of the electrical anomalies caused by the breach. A small plastic water tank imitated a solution pond. A hole was made in the bottom of the small tank, it provided a hydraulic connection with the large tank. The measurements were performed with the Skla-64 equipment, and the two-dimensional data inversion was carried out using the Res2DInv program. As a result, it was found that the place of leakage is allocated by an anomaly of low electrical resistivity and an intense anomaly of normalized chargeability. However, the 2D electrical resistivity model is complicated by inversion artifacts. The normalized chargeability anomaly is local and accurately marks the location of the leak in the bottom of the tank. It is proposed to use a complex analysis of electrical resistivity and normalized chargeability for electrometric monitoring of leaks from pregnant solution pond and other hydraulic structures.