The challenge
Mining's endless water cycle
Water is an integral part of mining, used in exploration, mining operations, mineral processing, care-and-maintenance and rehabilitation after a mine’s closure.
Mines obtain their water from a variety of sources including from bulk water infrastructure (third-party water), groundwater, rainfall and run-off.
After mining or processing activities, water is either reused, returned to the environment, supplied to other users or lost through evaporation.
Managing this water safely and to meet regulatory requirements is a significant challenge and high priority for the industry.
Our response
Managing a precious resource
Effective water management ensures minimal impacts to surface- and groundwater resources and the surrounding environment.
It reduces onsite storage volumes of saline mine water and associated wastes, facilitates safe discharge to the environment and recovers water for beneficial reuse.
We have developed a suite of novel water-treatment technologies and services to help the mining industry effectively manage their water.
We created tailored technologies to treat various water streams from the mines to enable greater water recycling, meet environmental discharge requirements and reduce the inventory of saline water storage onsite.
The results
More than a drop in the bucket
Our technologies are also being used to help the industry handle extreme rain and flooding events, and enable recycling for an additional source of water.
We have developed membrane-based processes to treat moderately saline waters, using a low thermal-based process that can be integrated with waste heat or renewable-energy sources to desalinate very highly saline waters, and an electrochemical process to remove contaminants.
Also have developed technologies able to handle highly saline, acidic and high solids feedwaters.
We have delivered and demonstrated wastewater solutions from fundamental studies to pilot-scale site trial demonstrations.
We also have established a water-characterisation laboratory for water analysis.
We can offer a holistic, tailored response to your wastewater challenges.