Mining is usually associated with draining of large quantities of water. On the other hand, mining operations themselves are water users for purposes like coal or ore washing, dust mitigation, recultivation, etc. The normally existing water surplus can be seen as a resource for public purposes instead of discharging the water to rivers and the sea. It is typical for the mining operation that these water amounts vary spatio-temporally according to the mining process. The R&D project WaterMiner investigates the example of the Hon Gai hard coal mining area in Ha Long, Vietnam, as to how and to what extent under the variable spatio-temporal conditions the mine water can cover the water demand in the mines themselves and contribute to the public water supply in the surrounding settlement area of Hon Gai. The spatio-temporal change of mine water drainage, mine water treatment and mine-internal water use and the potential mine-external water use volumes in the project region are investigated by a material flow model and visualized by Sankey diagrams, maps, and tables. Several options for delivery of mine water for mine-external water uses as a contribution to the public water supply are shown.

采矿通常与大量水的排放有关。另一方面，采矿业本身就是用水户，用于煤炭或矿石洗涤，减尘，重新耕种等目的。正常情况下存在的剩余水可以被视为公共资源，而不是将水排入河流和海洋。 。对于采矿作业，这些水量通常会根据采矿过程而随时间而变化。研发项目WaterMiner以越南下龙市的Hon Gai硬煤开采区为例，研究了在可变的时空条件下，矿井水如何以及在何种程度上能够满足矿井自身的用水需求，并有助于洪盖周边居民区的公共供水。利用物质流模型研究了项目地区矿井排水，矿井水处理和矿井内部用水的时空变化以及潜在的矿井外部用水量，并通过Sankey图表，地图和表格将其可视化。列出了为矿山外部用水输送矿井水的几种选择，以对公共供水做出贡献。