The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
From droughts to floods – sector improving water stewardship Metal Tech News – September 20, 2023
View of the mountains over one of Resolution Copper's water tanks in Superior, Ariz. The arid zone around Superior has a long history of mining towns dating back to the 1870s and is considered part of Arizona's "copper triangle."
Mine tailings are used as backfill in underground mines, stored in open pits, dried and stacked, or pumped into tailings ponds to allow solid particles to settle on the bottom, allowing water to be reused in further mine operations.
Mining – especially regarding copper, lithium, and other critical minerals – is one of the most water-intensive industries, and the sector is facing increased operational risks, including community competition for supply.
With rising scarcity, industrial utilization of water is typically the first to be constrained, as with the shutdown of aluminum processing in São Paulo, Brazil, during the record-setting 2014–2017 drought.
Investor scrutiny of water stewardship has since increased across the sector, redefining how companies pursue mitigation-prioritizing prevention rather than control. This is in line with a general trend of rising costs relating to large-scale solutions such as desalination, wastewater management and recycling.
Earlier this summer, the Phoenix, Ariz. area restricted various new home construction projects due to reduced groundwater near to where Rio Tinto's Resolution Copper operation will soon use as much water as a new city of about 140,000 over the next 40 years, according to geologist James Wells.
Resolution, in Superior, Arizona's corner of the copper triangle, is also one of many mining projects that the U.S. hopes will ensure domestic supplies of minerals and metals critical to the energy transition.
Resolution's president, Victoria Peacey, has promised the company will provide stored Colorado River water to supplement its use of groundwater. Peacey has stressed cutting-edge equipment, transparency, inclusivity and consultation with local communities and tribes.
While changing rainfall patterns are causing increased droughts and floods, the most pressing concern is still groundwater supply.
Using NASA satellite data from 2003 to 2013, researchers published a study in Water Resources Research with findings demonstrating over half of the world's major aquifers are being depleted faster than they are being replenished, a trend that – without cooperative water stewardship across stakeholders – will only worsen as climate change and population growth progress.
Mining companies and their host countries have become aware that the contest for water will steadily grow more severe under these conditions. Weather patterns are more intense, the demand for new mines is growing, and increasingly erratic seasonal supply has weakened water security worldwide.
Such risks have merited serious attention from industry executives to solve the interrelated challenges of supply, reduced consumption, and environmental impact, while meeting production targets.
For water management, this manifests as three key issues:
• Securing a reliable water supply. ESG issues surrounding this first and most historic challenge include ensuring local sources aren't disrupted.
To supply mines and refining plants, the mining industry has recently moved away from groundwater to desalinated seawater. For mines distant from the coast and at higher altitudes, water from other sources can be allocated.
For example, improving a location's infrastructure to treat wastewater. By building a wastewater plant to support the underdeveloped area, the mining company is able to use the treated water for its operations instead of extracting from aquifers. This solution creates a stable source while providing social, environmental, and financial value.
• Reducing water consumption and increasing efficiency. This second challenge is where new technologies and solutions come into play.
An example is eliminating storage of tailings in a slurry. In arid conditions where water resources are strained, slurries not only take water out of the operational system and into closed storage and transport systems, but also increase potential water loss through evaporation and seepage.
High-altitude mines and liquid-based storage pose a potential downstream risk, whereas dry storage presents a safer and more effective option.
Greater efficiency when appraising the ores to be processed can be done with advanced ore sorting technologies providing real-time analysis of newly extracted ores. NextOre's magnetic resonance technology evaluates and sorts much coarser ore with accuracy and speed. This allows earlier removal of waste and lower-grade material before it enters the processing plant.
• Minimizing environmental risks. The mining industry has been increasingly called upon to demonstrate leadership in water stewardship by protecting its quality and managing the shared resource between community stakeholders.
The complexity of modern mining operations and need for increasingly diversified expertise simply reflects the transformative scale of the energy transition and the need for collaborative solutions to gain investment appeal and maintain the social license to operate and bring lasting value to communities.
At minimum, this can look like improved wastewater treatment, closed-loop water recycling, and managing the risk of localized environmental issues like acidic drainage, which has an infamous history with many U.S. communities that grew up around early mines.
The design and implementation of a water management approach should be developed through collaborative external partnerships, holistically tailored to specific site needs and the context of all involved, integrating permitting, research, delivery, and operations through to end-of-life.
Key organizations and programs supporting improvements in water stewardship across the industry include:
• International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) represents leading international mining and metals companies that implement the ICMM 10 Principles, such as ICMM water reporting definitions and guidance for all water-related metrics.
• Mining Association of Canada (MAC) promotes the development of Canada's mining and mineral processing industry with activities like the Towards Sustainable Mining program, which aids in improving industry performance.
• UN Global Compact Water Action Platform (CEO Water Mandate) is a strategic framework and six core elements for water management.
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has extensive certifications available.
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