A G.Re.T.A. monitoring system was recently installed at the base of a mining dam in Chile. It is one of the largest copper reserves in the world in the Coquimbo region. The device will recognize any seepage of contaminated water coming from two containment ponds above.

The working group of Geosinergia Ingeniería Y Medio Ambiente did an excellent job installing the system in a hostile environment and obtaining high quality data.

The monitoring unit, which will probably be followed by additional systems, is continuously monitoring the situation of the subsoil, with particular attention to variations caused by precipitation and changes in the level of the ponds.

The monitored profile has a length of about 140 m and an investigation depth of about 23 m. Continuous geoelectric measurements allow to keep the evolution of the subsoil resistivity profile under control, with a view to early warning.

 

G.Re.T.A. is connected to a cloud platform, where data is sent, saved and processed.  Thanks to this cloud platform, the user is able to monitor the daily situation (or hourly if necessary) analyse the data, download them, compare them. On the cloud there is also a section dedicated to alarms where the user can set resistivity variation thresholds, overtaken which an alert message is sent.