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SRK Consulting completed a series of technical studies to support closure planning at the Century Zinc mine, a large open cut zinc, lead, and silver mine located 250 km northwest of Mount Isa in North West Queensland. The objectives were to improve the understanding of the water quality that may develop in the pit lake post closure, and to assess potential post-closure impacts on the local and regional surface water and groundwater receiving environments.
Key tasks undertaken by SRK’s team included:
• Development and testing of conceptual models of physical and geochemical processes that would:
o Support sulfide mineral and carbonaceous material oxidation in waste rock dumps
o Control pit lake, groundwater, and surface water quality around the pit
o Control the quality of seepage from the tailings storage facility (TSF) and evaporation pond, and possible interactions between that seepage and the wider environment.
• Assessment of the hydrogeological processes that control pit water balances and interactions between the pit lake and local groundwater and surface water bodies.
• Development of contaminant source terms for waste rock dumps, pit walls, and the TSF. The source terms included assessment of sulfide oxidation processes based on historical geochemical data and a supporting geochemical characterisation program developed to address identified data gaps and risks.
• Calculation of pit lake water quality based on the contaminant source terms combined with pit water balances. Water balances were based in GoldSim (compiled by HEC) and incorporated groundwater modelling outcomes (by Golder Associates).
• Assessment of potential impacts to surface and groundwater and downstream receptors based on flow path and water quality changes post closure.