Assessment of groundwater inflows into Kuteshwar Limestone Mines through flow modeling study, Madhya Pradesh, India

The development of limestone mining activities in Katni, Madhya Pradesh becomes necessary to increase the depth of exploration to produce ore. Increase in the exploration depth means that mining pits were subjected to water inrush. A hydrological and a hydrogeological model for the Katni area have been developed using USGS flow code, MODFLOW 2000. Collected GIS-based information was synthesized in a finite difference numerical model. The regional steady flow was calibrated under pre-development conditions assuming an equivalent porous medium approach. Water budget calculations show that the total groundwater flow into the aquifer system due to interaction with river amounts to 14,783 m3/day. Infiltration from precipitation provides 1,600 m3/day of the groundwater supply, while 1,446 m3/day comes from lateral inflow and the remaining. The inflows into mine pit area amounts to 15,725 m3/day. Although the karstic nature of the limestone aquifer the equivalent porous medium flow model is appropriate to represent hydraulic heads and recharge/discharge relationships on a regional scale. The results of this study can be used to predict the required amounts of pumping and the possible locations to dewater the groundwater in the mining pits.