By: Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, June 20, 2022
Anglo American is working on a project that considers desalination of seawater and reuse of industrial or residual water in Los Bronces, located in the Metropolitan Region of Chile.
The executive president of Anglo American, Aaron Puna, announced that Los Bronces will stop using fresh water in its mining process during the current decade. To this end, the company is working on a project that considers the desalination of seawater and the reuse of industrial or waste water, and which, once the relevant permits have been obtained, will contribute significantly to reinforcing the water supply for the population.
In an interview with the Copper Community program, the executive explained that this is part of the company’s vision of mining in which innovation plays a fundamental role, with a net positive impact on biodiversity and carbon neutrality.
“The reality is that we hope that by the end of this decade we will no longer be using fresh water. And we see a future in which water is desalinated not to be used in operations, but ultimately to exchange it with the community and once again meet one of our objectives of prioritizing the use of all fresh water for human consumption” , assured Aaron Puna.
Precisely, regarding the future of the Los Bronces mine, the executive indicated that the decision to go to the Committee of Ministers was made after a process of evaluation and analysis of the Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA) that rejected the Los Bronces Integrated project, in order to continue moving towards an approval of the initiative.
In addition, he assured that they are open to continuing the dialogue and that, although they had the approval of 23 of the 25 evaluation services, which for them reinforces that they were working on the correct line, the company is fully willing to implement the measures that the authority deems pertinent and resolve any doubts that may still persist.
This material from the ElMostrador portal in Spanish was edited for clarity, style and length.
Loading...
