Statistical Characterization of Groundwater Geochemistry in Vein-Type Gold Mines in Korea

Abstract

A dataset of chemical composition of groundwater in Korea including that in vein-type gold mines was compiled through literature review. Groundwaters were grouped, according to location, into ‘adit groundwater’ in the immediate vicinity of gold veins, ‘surrounding groundwater’ spatially separated from the veins in gold mines, ‘normal groundwater’ from non-mineralized granitic rocks, and ‘deep groundwater’ from a depth of 500 m or deeper. ANOVA indicated that adit groundwater showed statistically higher values of TDS, Ca, and SO 4 than the other groups. High SO 4 in the adit groundwater is likely due to sulfide minerals, and high Ca may be attributed to the occurrence of calcite as a fracture-filling mineral in the mines. Classification functions derived from discriminant analysis could distinguish between adit, surrounding, and normal groundwaters with a hit ratio > 92%. The classification functions may serve as an indicator for the exploration of unknown vein-type gold deposits through chemical analysis of the groundwater.