Seawater RO Case Study: Minera Esperanza, Chile

Located in the Antofagasta region of Chile's north coast, Minera Esperanza's copper-gold mine is about 1,500 kilometers north of Chile's capital city of Santiago. The area is a desert, with extremely scarce supplies of drinking water. As a result, the Chilean government has placed constraints on drinking and industrial water supply; requiring developers of mines and other industrial facilities to provide their own water.

The availability of reliable potable water is a key issue in developing mines and other facilities located far from developed regions. Since there is no potable water available at the mining site, and no other local water source available, the only other way to supply potable water would be to truck it from cities, the closest of which are from 50 to 70 kilometers (30 to 45 miles) away. Aside from the expense and reliability of such a system, logistical and transportation issues make it impractical to ship such a high total volume of water by truck.