Our services

Our strong background and experience allows us to provide services with scientific and technical excellence.

Hydrological Services
  • Hydrological Services: RYA recognises that water management is a key component of mining project development and operation. Understanding the site water environement is key to preventing or mitigating adverse long-term environmental and social impacts related to water issues. This is especially important in Argentina,...
  • given the political and social climate surrounding mining projects over the last several years. Whether you need to evaluate potential surface water resources for operations, develop baseline water quality and ecological flow studies in support of an EIA, or design surface water management strutures for an active mine, RYA has you covered.

Hydrological services provided by RYA include:

+ Water Balance and Water Management

  • + Strategy development
  • + Water management frameworks
  • + Site-wide and operations-specific water balances
  • + Optimizing water recovery in arid climates and improving storage, treatment and release of wáter in wet climates
  • + Water balance and hydrogeological assessment for groundwater recharge

+ Sediment Transport and Hydraulic Structures

  • + Development of integrated sediment, erosion, and dscharge models (SedCad)
  • + Site-wide surface water management systems - conceptual development through final design
  • + Trade-off studies for comprehensive evaluation of water management options
  • + Design and construction of diversion structures, diversion channels, spillways, sediment ponds and canals
  • + Assessment of hypothetical “dam break” and “tailings run-out” effects to support emergeccy preparedness lanning (EPP)

+ Water Supply and Water Rights

  • + Assessment of groundwater and surface wáter supplies for mining operations

+ Water Treatment and Wetlands

  • + Design of pumping stations and pumpback systems, for routine or exceedance pumpbacks
  • + Design and construction of wetlands as passive treatment systems to mitigate water quality and / or to enhance aquatic hábitat

+ Ecological Flow

  • + Ecological flow studies to estimate minimum flow requirements and potential impacts
  • + Physiochemical monitoring programs
  • + Biological and hydrobiological montiroing programs

+ Mine Closure and Rehabilitation

  • + Rehabilitation and closure plans
  • + Engineering services associated with erosion and rehabilitation, including:
    • + Design of cover systems to meet water quality standards
    • + Detailed site assessments, alternative plans to reduce erosion potential; decant systems, erosion protection works and diversions
  • Hydrogelogical Services: RYA has experience in designing and completing targeted hydrogeological field programs, developing conceptual site models, and completing numerical modelling in support of project design, construction, operation, and closure scenarios.
  • We have significant experience using MODFLOW, FEFLOW, Seep/W, HYDRUS and VADOSE, as well as other software packages. Completed modelling investigations include predictive models for water supply, mine dewatering/depressurisation, seepage assessments, and impact assessments.
  • RYA specialises in linking hydrogeological models to site water balance models to manage wáter effectively across mine sites.

Hydrogeological services provided by RYA include:

+ Scoping Studies

  • + Local to regional groundwater studies
  • + Conceptual model development
  • + Identification of project water issues
  • + Hydrogeological data collection during exploration drilling

+ Pre-Feasibility Studies

  • + Hydrogeological baseline characterisations
  • + Installation of groundwater monitoring networks
  • + Preliminary hydraulic testing (e.g airlift yields and slug tests)
  • + Development of hydraulic testing programs for exploration boreholes, and client staff training
  • + Initial quantitative groundwater flow studies using analytical models or simple numerical models
  • + Scope development for feasibility studies
  • + Initial CAPEX/OPEX assessment

+ Feasibility Studies

  • + Water supply investigations to characterise aquifer systems, identify water supplies and predict impacts of groundwater usage on groundwater dependent ecosystems and third party users
  • + Mine dewatering/depressurisation assessments of both open pit and underground mine voids
  • + Development and application of numerical models to predict groundwater inflows

+ Project Development

  • + Develop operational strategies for water supply
  • + Conceptual and engineering design of dewatering systems, including pumps and conveyance
  • + Production and dewatering bore field design, installation and commissioning
  • + Design of depressurization systems for pit wall stability
  • + Drilling and hydraulic testing programs
  • + Environmental compliance monitoring

+ Mine Operations

  • + Project water balance
  • + Groundwater modelling scenarios for mine planning
  • + Performance assessments of water supply and dewatering systems
  • + Assessment of water disposal options including managed aquifer recharge
  • + Hydrogeological support for construction
  • + TSF seepage assessments

+ Mine Closure Planning

  • + Mine closure impact assessments, including hydrogeological modelling of pit lake development
  • + Hydrogeological assessment of waste rock piles and tailings storage facilities, including seepage assessments and unsaturated zone modelling for cover designs using HYDRUS / VADOSE
  • Geochemistry Services: The prediction of mine water quality is a key component of mine planning, and in particular, of mine waste and water management. The objective of mine water quality prediction studies is to evaluate the potential for mine waste to generate drainage/seepage that may affect downstream water resources.
  • RYA has a team of professionals experienced in water quality prediction from project development to closure planning.

Aqueous geochemistry/prediction services provided by RYA include:

+ Conceptualisation and modelling of aqueous geochemistry

  • + Modelling across multiple domains such asgroundwater, surface water, waste/landform seepage and post-closure infrastructure (e.g. pitlakes)
  • + Geochemical speciation and reaction modelling (using PHREEQC and Geothenist’s Workbench)
  • + Probabilistic modelling of complex, multi-variable systems (using GoldSim)
  • + Unsaturated flow and oxygen diffusion modelling (using Vadose/W)
  • + Surface water/lake water modelling (using DYRESM-CAEDYM and ELCOM-CAEDYM)
  • + For surface water, groundwater or marine environments:
    • + Identification of parameter(s) that controlwater quality
    • + Equilibrium and kinetic geochemical models
    • + Salt/metal generation and sequestration
    • + Custom water quality prediction tools

+ Services for pit-lake water chemistry prediction

  • + Hydrological, hydrogeological and geochemical conceptualisation, including review of the environmental geochemical properties of wall rock, backfill and associated waste rock runoff
  • + Development of analytical and/or numerical models of the hydrogeological and/or hydrogeochemical systems using programs such as MODFLOW and FEFLOW
  • + Geochemical (water quality) modelling – PHREEQC, Geochemist’s Workbench
  • + Development of pit void water balance, incorporating the results of the hydrological and hydrogeological models in an analytical platform – GoldSim, Crystal Ball
  • + Coupling geochemical water quality models with pit void water balance
  • + Assessment of the changes in pit lake wáter balance and water quality with time as a function of key variables including, but not limited to:
    • + Active wall rock exposure/submergence by the developing of the pit lake
    • + Changes in water balance fluxes (e.g. decreasing groundwater inflow rate, increasing evaporation rates)
    • + Scenario simulation using the developed models to assess climatic variability and/or infrastructure modifications (i.e. cyclonic rainfall events, pit lake catchment modification, etc.)
    • + Assessment of pit void/lake closure strategy (i.e. backfilling options, pit lake quick fill)

Certifications

In 2018 we certified the
ISO 9001 Standard (2015)

An active commitment towards efficiency improvement

Download our quality policy ISO 9001

About REYES & ASOCIADOS CONSULTORES S.A.

We develop our activities providing engineering and environmental services since 1995, in high complexity projects

Reyes & Asociados World Quality Commitment Award (Paris 2016)

Website

Contact

19 de mayo 548

CP: 8000 - B Blanca - Bs As - Argentina

Berutti 3351 Piso 23 B

CP: 1425 - Buenos Aires - Argentina

Tel/ Fax: +54-291-4521713

administracion@reyesyasoc.com.ar

© 1995 - 2024 Reyes & Asoc.
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