Mine water management in abandoned mine sites: from waste to resource

Mine water usually supposes one of the most important environmental problems of the extractive industry, where water quality is dependent of a great number of factors relatives to the ore deposit characteristics and to the exploitation method typology. But if water quality by nature or after convenient treatments stays inside the acceptable limits, according to the legislative quality standards, mine waters could be used for different uses. Then, new studies on the framework of the circular economy paradigm have led to found new possibilities for mine water, which in some cases can be considered as a potential water resource, generating new economic activities in the mining regions.