MINE WATER MANAGEMENT
MGX Minerals recently increased its ownership
stake in engineering partner PurLucid to 51% and
maintains the right to acquire 100% through
successive future investments.
MGX and PurLucid have invented new
technology and filed patent applications related
to brine treatment and selective lithium recovery.
PurLucid's licensed nanoflotation technology,
which purifies wastewater brine, has since been
integrated with a newly developed lithium
recovery process.
MGX has successfully extracted lithium from
heavy oil wastewater and is the first mover of a
new technology known as ‘petrolithium’. It has
also used similar new technology to extract
lithium from geothermal brines.
As petroleum in a well gets drilled out, it is
replaced by a salt-water brine that is useless to
well operators since it contains less than 1%
petroleum. The wastewater is sent back down the
well, or pumped into storage tanks, at added
cost. That brine can contain significant amounts
Aqueous Solutions provided a desalination plant for Glencore’s McArthur River Mine in remote
Northern Territory, Australia. The reverse osmosis plant replaces existing water softening equipment,
and provides all potable and processing water for the mining operation from hard and saline
groundwater:
n Containerised desalination unit capable of producing 800,000 litres/d of potable and process
water
n Installed automatic programmable operation with remote monitoring system
n Electronic monitoring system, integrated cartridge filtration, antiscalant dosing
n Replaced expensive and inefficient softener system resulting in large savings in salt purchase
n Control system integrated into plant SCADA system
of lithium. Petrolithium is produced by separating
the oil from the lithium-bearing brine, yielding a
precipitate with concentration of lithium
carbonate 95% or greater.
PurLucid and MGX are also developing and
optimising an approach for magnesium extraction.
Water for the Antofagasta area
Mitsui & Co has, through Caitan, a 50-50 joint
venture established with Técnicas de
Desalinazación de Aguas (Tedagua) under the
Spanish ACS group, entered into an agreement
concerning operation for desalination and
conveyance services to be provided to Minera
Spence, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BHP
Minerals.
Caitan will supply fresh water to Spence for a
20-year period. This project involves the
construction of a desalination plant (1,000
litres/s) and a water conveyance system of
approximately 150 km in the area of Antofagasta
in the north of Chile.
There is increasing concern about water
shortages affecting the copper mining industry
and industry in general there. Demand is,
therefore, expected to increase by approximately
14% per annum. Mitsui says it “will continue its
efforts to capture demand for water
infrastructure and contribute to the development
of Chile’s fast growing economy, through the
enhancement of related infrastructure.” IM
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MARCH 2018 | International Mining 49