The International Mine Water Association (IMWA) is the first scientific-technical association worldwide dedicated to mine water

Acid mine drainage

Acid mine drainage , or acid rock drainage , refers to the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. However, other areas where the earth has been disturbed may also contribute acid rock drainage to the environment...

 related topics.

History

IMWA was founded in 1979 in Granada

Granada

Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, due to the steadily increasing problems related to water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

 in the mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 sector. Back then, the main focus of the association was on safety issues of water in mining. Over the years the focal point changed to more environmental issues. Since its conception, IMWA aimed to promote contacts between researchers, miners, consultancies, and students. For this purpose, IMWA organizes congresses every three years. In the years in between symposia are held. In 2008 232 delegates from 40 nations attended the 10th IMWA congress in Carlsbad, Czech Republic.

Publications

Since 1982, the IMWA has published the Journal of the International Mine Water Association which was later (1994) renamed Mine Water and the Environment. Today, the Journal is available electronically (ISSN 1616-1068) and in printed form (ISSN 1025-9112) from Springer, (Heidelberg, Germany). Since 2010 it is listed in the Science Citation Index

Science Citation Index

The Science Citation Index is a citation index originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information and created by Eugene Garfield in 1960, which is now owned by Thomson Reuters. The larger version covers more than 6,500 notable and significant journals, across 150 disciplines, from ...

 Expanded and is dispatched quarterly (March, June, September, December) to over 600 subscribers worldwide. Its electronic articles are requested several thousands of times per year.

Furthermore, the book series Mining and the Environment was launched in 2008 (Springer) with the first volume being devoted to mine water management and tracer tests. The second volume, scheduled for 2011, will draw on acidic pit lakes.

Congresses and Symposia

Since its formation IMWA has held ten congresses and a number of symposia which were organized by the respective local IMWA host:

• Budapest, Hungary 1982 (1st Congress)
• Granada, Spain 1985 (2nd Congress)
• Nottingham, UK 1986
• Katowice, Poland 1987
• Melbourne, Australia 1988 (3rd Congress)
• Lisbon, Portugal 1990
• Ljubljana•Pörtschach, Slovenia•Austria 1991 (4th Congress)
• Chililabombwe, Zambia 1993
• Nottingham, UK 1994 (5th Congress)
• Denver, USA 1995
• Portorož, Slovenia 1996
• Bled, Slovenia 1997 (6th Congress)
• Johannesburg, South Africa 1998
• Seville, Spain 1999
• Kattowice, Poland 2000 (7th Congress)
• Belo Horizonte, Brazil 2001
• Freiberg, Germany 2002
• Johannesburg, South Africa 2003 (8th Congress)
• Newcastle, UK 2004
• Oviedo, Spain 2005 (9th Congress)
• St. Louis, USA 2006
• Cagliari, Italy 2007
• Carlsbad, Czech Republic 2008 (10th Congress)
• Pretoria, South Africa 2009
• Cape Breton, Canada 2010

For future years the following locations will host the events:

• Aachen, Germany 2011 (11th Congress)
• Perth, Australia 2012
• Cardiff, England 2013
• China 2014

Members

In 2010 the International Mine Water Association records 522 individual including 29 corporate members from 40 Nations with two local groups in Europe (PADRE

PADRE

The Partnership for Acid Drainage Remediation is a European based scientific-technical association dedicated to acid mine water related topics.- History :...

) and North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, respectively. Since 1997 membership of the association grew steadily from 70 members to today’s numbers; mainly based on the increasing importance of water and its environmental aspects in mining. Most members of IMWA are registered in North America, followed by Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.