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Detection of Buried Mine Shafts by Ground Conductivity Mapping - Two Examples from the Walloon Coalfield (Belgium)
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 24th European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, Sep 2018, Volume 2018, p.1 - 5
Abstract
Summary
The presence of numerous buried mine shafts in Wallonia (South Belgium) causes significative post-mining hazards and geotechnical risks. Recently, the locations of thousands of buried mine shafts have been estimated with some uncertainties. To eliminate these uncertainties, the most suitable solution is to relocate precisely the buried mine shafts. Geophysical surveys could provide an efficient way to detect such buried mine shafts. However, the applicability depends on the local context and needs to be assessed.
In our study, we applied ground conductivity mapping to detect and locate buried mine shafts expected within two distinct sites (Sambreville and La Louvière). The application of this method gave very convincing results, with some nuance according to the site geology and to the mine shaft abandonment (backfilling or not). In addition, a significant number of unknown mine shafts was also discovered. In the future, development projects in these areas could benefit from investigations such as the ones presented here.
This is why this work could be seen as a milestone in dimensioning ground conductivity surveys to detect buried mine shafts in the regional context of the Walloon coalfield.
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