Heat extraction from hypersaline mine water at the Dawdon mine water treatment site

摘要

Mine closure needs to take consideration of the potential wider environmental and economic value of the mine infrastructure and surface environs. An area of growing interest in the exploitation of abandoned mine sites as an economic resource is the heat recoverable from mine waters or as a sink for heat from cooling applications. Mine site restorations and redevelopments can benefit from potentially vast quantities of 'green' heat energy, facilitated by considered mine abandonment (ensuring open shafts remain secure and monitoring recovery of water levels, for example). Pumping of waters, or engineered gravity outflows from mine workings, are often required post-closure to prevent uncontrolled discharges as water levels rebound; in these cases the water source is readily accessible. Alternatively, viable heating schemes may actively abstract mine water, with a specific objective of recovering heat, before discharging it at surface or reinjecting it into the mine.