WATER MANAGEMENT
minerals which is often run to a tight schedule. Where water is wasted and mismanaged, more water than is truly necessary is pumped on to the site, all at considerable cost – meaning properly managed water use can save money as well as optimise production and reduce downtime. Water mismanagement can also lead to damage to the wider environment through unintentional contamination, as well as a dangerous lack of fresh water available for workers. Only with the right pipework infrastructure in place to transport, store, supply and drain water, can this resource be properly managed on a mine site to reduce water stress, maintain high water quality, and prevent flooding or environmental damage.
, whereas coal and other non- metal mines need less water per tonne of mineral produced. As mines reach the end of their
down and control dust. Finally but no less importantly, high-quality water is also required to meet the drinking, cooking and washing needs of workers throughout the life of the mine. While high-value minerals such as gold are fairly low in production volume, nevertheless large quantities of water are required to transport and process ore. For example, one tonne of gold uses 250,000 cubic metres of water6
T
he mismanagement of water can disrupt production, as many extraction and washing
processes depend upon clean water, as well as disrupting the transportation of minerals which is often run to a tight schedule.
working life and exhaust supplies of high-quality ores, the remaining lower-quality ores begin to be extracted, which requires greater quantities of water in order to produce each tonne of metal. Coupled with increasing production, a reduction in ore quality means access to water becomes a business-critical issue7 Te mismanagement of water
can disrupt production, as many extraction and washing processes depend upon clean water, as well as disrupting the transportation of
In a typical mining operation, only around 35% of water discharged to a tailings dam is reused in the process plant, making tailings ponds the biggest culprit in terms of water wastage. While a quarter of water remains in the dam, 5% is lost to seepage and up to 35% to evaporation6
.
As seepage from pipes can account for up to 50,000 cubic metres lost per
REFERENCES: 1
Mining Magazine, October 2011; 2 De Beers Issue Brief #1, December 2011; 3
Thenewage.co.za – Conserving Water is Vital to South Africa’s Mining Sector, Mava
Scott; 4
National Water Resource Strategy 1st Edition September 2004; 5 MSCI ESG Research October 2013;
6 Water in Mining and Industry – Ian Prosser, Leif Wolf & Anna Littleboy. CSIRO 2011; 7
Miningreview.com – November 27, 2008.
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