Water shortage is a global problem, and China is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. The reverse distribution of coal resources and water resources has made the protection and utilization of water resources for coal mining in China a major technical problem for the green development of coal. Western China has become the main coal-producing area, but the ecological environment in the region is fragile, the evaporation of water resources is large, and the evaporation loss after mine water discharge is the main reason for the current annual loss of 6 billion tons of mine water in coal mining in China. The technical progress and engineering application characteristics of the protection and utilization of water resources in coal mining are systematically analyzed. After nearly 20 years of technical exploration and engineering practice, Shenhua Group broke through the traditional concept, put forward the technical concept of mine water storage in the goaf for the first time, overcome the technical problems such as water source prediction, reservoir site selection, reservoir capacity calculation, dam construction, safety control and water quality assurance, and built a technical system for underground coal mine reservoirs. This technology has been fully implemented in the Shendong mining area, and will be promoted and applied in other mining areas in the western region, opening up an effective technical way for the protection and utilization of coal mining water resources.

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