Richard Purdom Mar 25, 2015:

Mark: extraction is a pretty good term, but is 'active', whereas spring water exits by itself. Maybe the thesaurus can help!

Mark Robertson Mar 25, 2015:

Thank you Richard. I take your point about spring water. Would extraction then be better than mining? The law I am translating makes a distinction between "exploração de recursos geológicos" and "aproveitamento de recursos geológicos". Given the context exploração does not mean exploration but exploitation. I have therefore translated aproveitamento as utilization.

Mark Robertson Mar 25, 2015:

Hi Martin, Not really, as the term refers to/includes the phase after discovery and before aproveitamento. I see that the term "water mining" does exist so perhaps mining is correct.