back  October 2009 DAAD-Alumni-Expertenseminar "Mining and Water", Namibia (University of Namibia, Windhoek  & Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg)

From 5 to 9 October 2009, an expert seminar on “Mining and Water” was held at the Auditorium of the Geological Survey of Namibia, Ministry of Mines and Energy (GSN), and University of Namibia (UNAM), Windhoek, Namibia. The expert seminar “Mining and Water” in Namibia was jointly organized by the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (TUBAF) and the University of Namibia.

The expert seminar focused on concrete problems on the topic mining and water. Mining and water is closely linked for certain reasons: in many countries groundwater has to be pumped from the subsurface in order to run a mine. This is true for both open pit mines and deep mines. Often huge amount of water pumped from the underground cannot be used and is spilled into rivers. 
However, at the end of the mining activities there is a deficit of groundwater which might take years and decades until pre-mining groundwater conditions are reached. In many cases pre-mining conditions even do not occur at all due to severe alteration of the hydraulic conditions. In semiarid and arid regions with very deep groundwater levels there is no need to lower the groundwater level, however, water is needed for dust control, milling and ore processing and thus fighting for water may occur between mining, irrigation and drinking water needs. 
On the other side acid mine drainage (AMD) is a common problem in mining areas with sulphide minerals and probably the biggest mining related problem worldwide since AMD causes not only low pH and high sulphate concentrations but as well increased concentrations of toxic trace elements like arsenic, cadmium, mercury and others. 
But AMD is not the only chemical problem related to mining and water: most of the world’s gold is recovered with cyanide and due to sometimes poor techniques cyanide is released to the environment.
Roughly 12 million artisanal miners worldwide constitute one of the largest sectors of the mining industry and huge environmental problems, since more than 250 tons of mercury are emitted annually from artisanal gold mines contaminating humans, soils, and water bodies.

The conference proceedings are published under Merkel, B. & Schipek, M. (eds.) (2009): Mining and Water, Proceedings, DAAD Alumni expert seminar, October, 5 – 9, 2009. Wissenschaftliche Mitteilungen, 41, Institut für Geologie, Freiberg. The Proceedings consist of 13 contributions on 70 pages and is also available under
http://www.geo.tu-freiberg.de/fog/FOG_Vol_24.pdf online.
The response of the seminar participants was very positive praising the good organization and the overall quality of the presentations and topics presented.

Download the report here