In Spain a consortium lead by HW Process Technologies (HWPT) has a contract, worth some $22 million, for the design, supply, installation, commissioning and operation of a new water treatment plant at Cobre Las Cruces (CLC) copper mine near Seville. CLC is 70% owned by Inmet Mining and 30% by Leucadia National Corp. Allan Provost, Chief Executive of Harrison Western said CLC, one of the largest mining operations in Spain, “awarded the HWPT-lead consortium, a significant contract as a result of our unrivalled technical expertise and leading-edge technology in water treatment for industrial process solutions. We are very proud to deliver reliable solutions to assist CLC in meeting the challenge of optimising sustainable mine production while complying with stringent Spanish environmental standards applicable to the re-injection of treated water into the regional aquifer.”
The contract was awarded to HWPT under a joint venture with MP Medioambiente, a Spanish water management company. HWPT will design, engineer, and build the plant using its patented membrane-based water treatment technology. The best-in-class water treatment and re-injection plant, represents a milestone in Spanish mining, and should guarantee effective treatment of waters during the life of the CLC mine.
Work is under way and the project is scheduled for completion and commissioning by the end of 2010. Daily, the new plant will treat up to 14 million litres (3.7 million gallons) of mine water from the dewatering and reinjection system using HWPT’s patented technology – Engineered Membrane Separation or EMS¬ – before being re-injected into the aquifer. The high quality treated water ensures compliance with strict environmental standards issued by the Andalusian Water Agency and allows the mine to operate at full capacity year round.
Las Cruces can process up of 72,000 t/y of copper, which represents 25% of the total Spanish domestic consumption. HWPT designs, manufactures, installs and operates industrial water treatment and resource recovery systems. It offers a wide range of specialised engineering solutions using proven, patent-protected technologies to process complex water treatment conditions.
