Hydrogeological Assessment of the Thar Lignite Prospect

The paper is concerned with the hydrogeological appraisal of the proposed mining operations in the Thar Lignite field in sindh, pakistan containing lignite reserves >9 billion tonnes. The presence of three main aquifers surrounding three lignite seams induces pore pressure in the rock mass making the high wall slopes potentially unsafe. in order to dewater the surrounding rock mass before commencing mining excavations groundwater inflow predictions were carried out using a seep/W finite element software package. The simulation results for the three aquifers are presented indicating that the relative error of estimation between analytical and the numerical solutions vary from 3.4 % to 6.4%.