{"id":1163588,"date":"2020-02-04T10:57:09","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T16:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1012835"},"modified":"2020-02-04T10:57:09","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T16:57:09","slug":"bhp-to-supply-water-for-escondida-mine-from-desalination-plant-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1163588","title":{"rendered":"BHP to supply water for Escondida mine from desalination plant only"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BHP\u2019s (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world\u2019s largest,&nbsp;won\u2019t continue to draw fresh water from the Atacama salt flat, using instead desalinated water brought from&nbsp;its coastal plants.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The miner\u2019s decision comes as the<br \/>\ncountry is stepping up protections for a natural resource that has been<br \/>\ndepleted after decades of mining activity in and around the Atacama desert, the<br \/>\ndriest place on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The Atacama region, which hosts<br \/>\nsome of the planet\u2019s largest copper and lithium mines, is occasionally hit by<br \/>\nheavy rains and floods. According to Chile\u2019s water authority DGA, however, the<br \/>\narea has become drier over the last decade, adding an extra layer of difficulty<br \/>\nto mining companies with projects and operations nearby, at<br \/>\ntimes when the industry\u2019s demand for water is expected to soar as ore<br \/>\ngrades decline.<\/p>\n<p>BHP\u2019s decision to withdraw applications<br \/>\nto renew a permit to pump 428 litres per second of underground water is<br \/>\nexpected to reduce pressure on the vast, lithium-rich salt flat. The plain is home<br \/>\nto top lithium miners Albemarle and SQM, which also extract fresh water from<br \/>\nunderneath it.<\/p>\n<p>The world\u2019s No. 1 miner already gets more than 40% of the water it needs from the ocean and has vowed to stop using fresh water drawn from the surface and underground in Chile by 2030. In 2018, the mining giant&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/chile-mulls-making-water-desalination-mandatory-for-miners-44504\/\" >spent $3.43 billion on a desalination plant<\/a>&nbsp;for Escondida mine, which includes two pipelines to transport the water 3,200 meters above sea level.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/water-stress-by-country-map-1024x759.jpg\" alt=\"BHP to supply water for Escondida mine from desalination plant only\" class=\"wp-image-1012837\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/water-stress-by-country-map.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/water-stress-by-country-map-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/water-stress-by-country-map-768x569.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wri.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/ranking-world-s-most-water-stressed-countries-2040\"  rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> World Resources Institute.<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Antofagasta\u2019s (LON:ANTO) Zald\u00edvar copper<br \/>\nmine is also seeking to renew permits to draw water from the flat. <\/p>\n<p>Unlike Escondida, it has no backup<br \/>\nplan. The mine, which is approaching the end of its productive life, will have<br \/>\nto close down if its water license isn\u2019t renewed, the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/access-to-water-one-of-miners-biggest-challenges-ahead-study\/\">has<br \/>\nwarned in the past<\/a>. Even with water use permits in place, Zald\u00edvar will<br \/>\nprobably stop producing in 2029. <\/p>\n<p>The current license allows Antofagasta<br \/>\nto pump 500 liters a second through 2025 and the miner is asking for a license<br \/>\nto pump 213 liters a second through 2029.<\/p>\n<p>Other than their high cost,<br \/>\ndesalination plants also pose&nbsp;worries related to the waste miners<br \/>\ngenerate. That product \u2014 brine \u2014 is usually pumped back into the reservoir<br \/>\nwhere the water was taken from. This causes an imbalance in the overall water<br \/>\ncomposition, which is harmful to the environment within the sourcing body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The miner already gets more than 40% of the water it needs from the ocean and has vowed to stop using fresh water drawn from the surface and underground in Chile by 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[949,369,4,2857],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1163588"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1163777,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163588\/revisions\/1163777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1163588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1163588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1163588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}