Chile’s Antofagasta expects to reach an agreement with miner BHP to help ensure water supply at its Zalidvar copper mine in the country’s northern desert, a company official told a Chilean newspaper on Friday.
Antofagasta needs access to water for the future development of its Zaldivar copper deposit, which is near BHP’s Escondida mine, the world’s largest copper mine. Zaldivar’s size, however, does not justify investing in its own desalination plant to bring water in from the Pacific ocean, Antofagasta has said.