Increasing groundwater recovery in open pit mines following closure using managed aquifer recharge
Presented by: Sebastien McCulloch
Produced by: IAH NSW
Date: Tuesday 10 March 2026
Time: 17:30 for an 18:00 start
Where: WSP Office – Level 27
Online: Teams Link
Abstract
Over-reliance and under management of groundwater resources in Australia and across the globe is leading to groundwater scarcity and water resilience challenges. In many areas, dewatering for dry mining in open pit mines contributes to over-extraction of groundwater, and provides mining companies with additional water management requirements. Mine dewatering reduces groundwater elevations and can deplete groundwater that may otherwise have been utilised by other downstream users, including for water supply and groundwater dependant ecosystems. Following mine closure, recovery can take hundreds or thousands of years to recover, leading to under-supply to downstream users.
Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) provides mining companies with a management option for surplus water disposal that can reduce the recovery time of groundwater levels following closure of the mine. There are at least 27 mines in Australia that are actively utilising, researching or proposed the use of MAR. If utilised early enough, MAR can provide a proactive solution to surplus water management, however, there is limited publicly available information for case studies of mining companies utilising MAR for environmental benefit. This research looks at analytical and numerical methods of determining reinjection bore locations to speed up the recovery of groundwater elevations following mine closure.
Bio
Sebastien is a senior hydrogeologist with 10 years’ experience across mining, infrastructure, remediation and development projects in Australia. He has a BSc in Geology and MSc in Groundwater Hydrology and is an IAH NSW committee member. He has undertaken significant field work across regional Australia and specialises in providing pragmatic solutions to complex problems. His modelling skills include EVS, MODFLOW-USG, FEFLOW, and GeoStudio packages.
