Chemometrics in Ascertaining Hydrogeochemical Characteristics of Coal Mine Discharge vis-à-vis Behaviour of Surface and Groundwater Resources of the Mahan River Catchment Area, Central India; [针对印度中部马汉河流域地表水和地下水行为采用化学统计方法确定煤矿排放废水的水文地球化学特征]; [Chemometrische Untersuchungen zur Bestimmung der hydrogeochemischen Merkmale von Grubenwässern aus dem Kohlenbergbau im Verhältnis zum Verhalten der Oberflächen- und Grundwasserressourcen im Einzugsgebiet des Mahan-Flusses in Zentralindien]; [La quimiometría en la determinación de las características hidrogeoquímicas del vertido de las minas de carbón frente al comportamiento de los recursos hídricos superficiales y subterráneos de la zona de captación del río Mahan, en la India central]

We investigated the hydrogeochemical regime of an AMD-affected coal mining province. 98 water samples were collected over two seasons and analysed for 14 parameters. We attempted to discriminate the sources of variation of water quality using select multivariate techniques: display methods (principal component analysis) and unsupervised pattern recognition (cluster analysis). Most of the groundwater and river water were characterised by shallow freshwater facies (Ca–Mg–HCO3 type), whereas the samples representative of mine water were of the Ca–Mg–SO4 type. The mines of the area annually discharge 2901 t of solute loads, ranging from 91 to 1030 t/year. Various molar ratios suggest that dissolution of the silicates associated with the mixing process is the predominant solute acquisition processes that govern the water chemistry of the region besides AMD. The chemometric results indicated that only a few groundwater and river water samples had low pH and elevated total dissolved solids, and these were near the three mines that were affected by AMD. These results substantiate the effectiveness of the mine water treatment measures implemented at the mine sites. © 2022, The Author(s) under exclusive licence to International Mine Water Association.