WATER MANAGEMENT & TREATMENT
Watering down
Paul Moore reviews some water
management developments in
mining from desalination
investment to dewatering pump
news and water monitoring tools
hile remains the centre of desalination
activity in mining. Cochilco analyst Camila
Montes recently presented their
projections of water consumption in copper
mining in the country in 2030. Seawater
consumption will increase by 156% towards that
year compared to 2019, reaching 11 m 3 / sec,
while the use of continental water will decrease
by 6%. By region, in the case of Antofagasta,
seawater will represent 65% of the water used
for copper mining by 2030, Tarapacá 60%, the
Atacama 42% and in Coquimbo 25%.
BHP recently announced that the Escondida
Water Supply Expansion project was completed
in December 2019, on schedule and budget,
further increasing total desalinated water
capacity to 3,800 litres per second. But this is not
the only project in the region – plans are
underway at BHP Cerro Colorado with a tender
out for a project what will supply 562 l/sec, with
162 l/s in a first phase; while at Spence a desal
plant is underway from JV SPV Caitan comprising
Spanish developer Cobra Group (50%) through
its affiliate Tedagua, and Japanese trading house
Mitsui & Co (50%).
Last November, Codelco cancelled a $1 billion
contract that had been awarded to a consortium
led by Japan’s Marubeni to construct and operate
a desalination plant that would have supplied
water to the miner’s Chuquicamata, Radomiro
Tomic and Ministro Hales divisions. However, this
is not the end of the story, a new tender process
is starting for the plant but one that will supply
the whole Codelco copper mining network in the
Calama region. At Teck’s Quebrada Blanca 2, IDE
Technologies was last year chosen to design and
supply the desalination plant. QB2 is an
extension of Teck’s existing Quebrada Blanca
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26 International Mining | MARCH 2020
operation in Chile. The desalination plant will be
located at the port site for the QB2 copper mine
in the Tarapacá region. Other plants are in the
making at Collahuasi and Los Pelambres.
Moving to another arid world region, as
reported in The Jordan Times, the UK’s Solar
Water PLC was recently selected by the Jordan
Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC) to produce
low cost, environmentally friendly water and
supply freshwater to its phosphate plant on the
Gulf of Aqaba.
For the next 25 years, freshwater will be
supplied by a Solar Water™ desalinator dome,
positioned adjacent to the JPMC plant. Work will
start this spring, and participants expect the
desalinator to begin supplying freshwater by
mid-2021, according to the statement. The
technology involves a dome – a hydrological
sphere – constructed from glass and steel into
which sea water flows. The energy generated to
super heat the continuous inflow of water and to
create a constant water cycle within the dome –
the equivalent of up to 20,000 suns – produced
by focusing concentrating solar radiation, from a
large number of parabolic mirrors (heliostats)
surrounding the domes, onto the glass and super
conductive steel frame structure. Through this
process, the sea water evaporates, condenses
and is precipitated as fresh water. The brine
gathers at the bottom of the dome’s basin, is
extracted and sold commercially.
Water monitoring tools
Outotec has launched a new real-time water
monitoring tool to enable miners to simulate and
evaluate proposed water-treatment investments
and process changes, and keep tabs on water
use across their operations.
The unique desalination technology from Solar
Water PLC involves a dome – a hydrological
sphere – constructed from glass and steel into
which sea water flows. The company is
supplying this system to Jordan Phosphate
Mines Company
As the company says, water is a scarce and
valuable resource, and mining operations are
under increasing pressure to optimise their water
usage in order to improve environmental and
economic performance.
Outotec Pretium Water Advisor enables real-
time monitoring of the water balance across an
entire site, allowing operators to create short-
term forecasts for water volume and quality, it
said.
The platform predicts changes in water
balance and quality based on changing
production and environmental conditions. This
enables simulation and evaluation of proposed
water-treatment investments and process
changes.
“The solution combines intelligent water
measurement stations and instrumentation with
Outotec’s predictive water balance computing to
eliminate the need to rely on time-consuming
manual water-balance and key performance
indicator (KPI) calculations,” Outotec said.
Plant managers and engineers can view water
KPIs as both graphical views and historical trends
via a web-based interface and also access
scenario management tools for performing
simulations and evaluating the impacts of new
water treatment investments, process changes,
or the impact of expansion plans on the site’s
water resources, the company said.
“Water Advisor monitoring stations provide
accurate and reliable real-time data on both