Abstract: Detailed depiction of subsurface water flowing channels is very important for the safe mining and multi-echnical collaborative treatment of mining discharge. Abandoned goafs and water conducted faults are buried deep underground, and their complex spatial structures are difficult to characterize at low cost and quickly. In this study, transient electromagnetic method and high-frequency electromagnetic method were combined to identify the evolution of subsurface water flowing channels in the sulfurgold mining area of Tianma Mountain. The results indicated that there were three main water flowing channels in the mining area to receive atmospheric precipitation recharge, located in the west tailings backfill zone, the gully terrain zone south of Line 40, and the fault fracture zone on the southwest side of the gully zone. The largest was the gully zone, where surface water converged due to the low terrain and formed a seepage channel for downward recharge. Under the Quaternary loose overburden, elongated fracture zones developed locally, generating a water flowing channel extending from the surface to -700 m. The entire seepage zone was distributed in a north-west direction along the trend of the gully topography. There were continuous minimum resistance anomalies at -400 m and -600 m elevations, which were speculated to be local water-rich areas for karst development. The above results suggested that the application of high-frequency electromagnetic method to preliminarily identify the local water-rich areas and stratum structure characteristics, combination with the transient electromagnetic method to carry out fine detection of the main water flowing channels, is an effective way to achieve low-cost, fast, and accurate identification of subsurface water flowing channels in metal mines.

Key words: water flowing channels, transient electromagnetic method, high-frequency electromagnetic method, high-sulfur metal mines