<p>Your assumption about water that reach the lower point in mines is correct, in fact in the older mines that develop let's say in a mountain they dug a lower level tunnel that collect all the water of the mine, this tunnel can run several miles like one in Sardinia (Italy) that reach the sea at 14 Km.</p>
<p>This method have the obvious limitation that you cannot go under this bottom level, so you reach a point when you have to pump water out to your daring tunnel.</p>
<p>Mine shaft also have a deeper bottom to collect water, in older mines with a relative low water income they run a &quot;bucket&quot; in the bottom of the shaft to take water as in a normal well.</p>
<p>In the modern times you have always the need to collect water in a point where you have installed your pump, and you do this digging some ditch along the tunnel for example.</p>
<p>Water can be very dangerous because digging tunnels you can encounter large mass of water, this happen for example during the dig of many tunnels that go trough Alps.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-22T17:12:28.700Z
2021-07-22T17:12:28.700Z
gino
<p>We pump it out. Open <em>and</em> closed pit mines usually have <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/56831086/Chapter-3-Mine-Pumps" rel="noreferrer">pumping installations</a> to get the water out.</p>

<p>Look up <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine_dewatering" rel="noreferrer">Mine dewatering on Wikipedia</a>.</p>

<p>There have also been numerous accidents in the past where mines were flooded (YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19tHroU26yA" rel="noreferrer">Turkey mining accident: 18 workers trapped after underground water floods mine</a>), and when left alone many abandoned mines <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flooded_mines" rel="noreferrer">will fill up</a> with (ground) water.<br />
Sometimes these are nice <a href="https://www.gue.com/cave-diving-flooded-mine-central-germany" rel="noreferrer">diving objects</a>.</p>

<p>Or (as Trond Hansen <a href="https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/17567/ground-water-is-almost-every-where-then-how-do-mines-and-other-holes-are-digged/17569#comment37722_17567">commented</a>) we try to prevent it from coming in in the first place, by using cement, grout or bulkheads to 'plug the holes'.</p>

<p>If you are <em>really</em> interested:</p>

<p><a href="https://books.google.nl/books?id=K7jxCAAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA268&amp;lpg=PA268&amp;dq=preventing+mine+drainage+-acid&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=upAVxEshdP&amp;sig=ACfU3U0OqfMFDwd3db__IUxk2hWi0yO9iw&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjD1JeJmtDjAhUBbFAKHSJkC6MQ6AEwDXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" rel="noreferrer">Mine Water: Hydrology, Pollution, Remediation</a> by P.L. Younger, S.A. Banwart, R.S. Hedin.</p>

<p><a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ed03/ffbe86a40e374eb64a18dd5d2ae50e0eceb2.pdf" rel="noreferrer">Design of Water Holding Bulkheads for CoalMines</a> by V.S. Mutton and A.M. Rememnikov</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-25T17:04:43.680Z
Here's a nice example of a flooded open-pit mine on the edge of a desert: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Anaconda_Copper_Mine_Nevada.JPG/1280px-Anaconda_Copper_Mine_Nevada.JPG
jamesqf
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-22T17:19:10.853Z
Pumping water out of mines is very common and a problem. Mine water is generally very corrosive so design of piping and pumps is not trivial.
blacksmith37
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-22T17:31:28.283Z
In coal mines much of the water is in the coal . As that water drains from the coal , natural gas is then released from the coal requiring good air circulation to avoid explosions.
blacksmith37
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-25T13:38:26.043Z
2019-07-25T13:52:26.240Z
2019-07-25T13:52:26.240Z
Jan Doggen
<p>Water finds it way to the lowest point because of gravity. 
So if we dig a mine or something same, then how we take ground water in account, so that it doesn't fill in.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-25T13:37:26.483Z
yes mines do leak and part of how this is solved is to use pumps to get the water out of the mine,an other solution is to freeze the area where the water enters the mine to stop the flow and then pump concrete into the fractures to seal it off(freezing the rock was used during the construction of a underwater road tunell close to where i live,the oslofjord tunnel in norway it still leaks 36 metric tonns of water an hour)the same solution can be used in mines.
trond hansen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-27T18:02:17.133Z
Indeed, the first steam engines were developed for pumping water out of mines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcomen_atmospheric_engine
jamesqf
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-22T17:27:11.773Z
Even today the Cornwall tin mines are notable for the remains of the boiler houses for the steam pumps.
blacksmith37
<water><groundwater>
Ground water is almost every where, then how do mines and other holes are digged so that ground water doesn't drain into it
Rohit Nigam
# Ground water is almost every where, then how do mines and other holes are digged so that ground water doesn't drain into it

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-07-25)

Water finds it way to the lowest point because of gravity.
So if we dig a mine or something same, then how we take ground water in account, so that it doesn't fill in.

**Tags:** water, groundwater

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: yes mines do leak and part of how this is solved is to use pumps to get the water out of the mine,an other solution is to freeze the area where the water enters the mine to stop the flow and then pump concrete into the fractures to seal it off(freezing the rock was used during the construction of a underwater road tunell close to where i live,the oslofjord tunnel in norway it still leaks 36 metric tonns of water an hour)the same solution can be used in mines.  
> **username_2**: Indeed, the first steam engines were developed for pumping water out of mines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcomen_atmospheric_engine  
> **username_3**: Even today the Cornwall tin mines are notable for the remains of the boiler houses for the steam pumps.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2019-07-25. Score: 15 | Accepted answer

We pump it out. Open *and* closed pit mines usually have [pumping installations](https://www.scribd.com/document/56831086/Chapter-3-Mine-Pumps) to get the water out.

Look up [Mine dewatering on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine_dewatering).

There have also been numerous accidents in the past where mines were flooded (YouTube: [Turkey mining accident: 18 workers trapped after underground water floods mine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19tHroU26yA)), and when left alone many abandoned mines [will fill up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flooded_mines) with (ground) water.  
Sometimes these are nice [diving objects](https://www.gue.com/cave-diving-flooded-mine-central-germany).

Or (as username_1 username_1 [commented](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/17567/ground-water-is-almost-every-where-then-how-do-mines-and-other-holes-are-digged/17569#comment37722_17567)) we try to prevent it from coming in in the first place, by using cement, grout or bulkheads to 'plug the holes'.

If you are *really* interested:

[Mine Water: Hydrology, Pollution, Remediation](https://books.google.nl/books?id=K7jxCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA268&lpg=PA268&dq=preventing+mine+drainage+-acid&source=bl&ots=upAVxEshdP&sig=ACfU3U0OqfMFDwd3db__IUxk2hWi0yO9iw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjD1JeJmtDjAhUBbFAKHSJkC6MQ6AEwDXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false) by P.L. Younger, S.A. Banwart, R.S. Hedin.

[Design of Water Holding Bulkheads for CoalMines](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ed03/ffbe86a40e374eb64a18dd5d2ae50e0eceb2.pdf) by V.S. Mutton and A.M. Rememnikov

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Here's a nice example of a flooded open-pit mine on the edge of a desert: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Anaconda_Copper_Mine_Nevada.JPG/1280px-Anaconda_Copper_Mine_Nevada.JPG  
> **username_3**: Pumping water out of mines is very common and a problem. Mine water is generally very corrosive so design of piping and pumps is not trivial.  
> **username_3**: In coal mines much of the water is in the coal . As that water drains from the coal , natural gas is then released from the coal requiring good air circulation to avoid explosions.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2021-07-22. Score: 0

Your assumption about water that reach the lower point in mines is correct, in fact in the older mines that develop let's say in a mountain they dug a lower level tunnel that collect all the water of the mine, this tunnel can run several miles like one in Sardinia (Italy) that reach the sea at 14 Km.

This method have the obvious limitation that you cannot go under this bottom level, so you reach a point when you have to pump water out to your daring tunnel.

Mine shaft also have a deeper bottom to collect water, in older mines with a relative low water income they run a "bucket" in the bottom of the shaft to take water as in a normal well.

In the modern times you have always the need to collect water in a point where you have installed your pump, and you do this digging some ditch along the tunnel for example.

Water can be very dangerous because digging tunnels you can encounter large mass of water, this happen for example during the dig of many tunnels that go trough Alps.


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