World Water Day 2021

• 2020: Reduce the withdrawal of fresh water by 20%. Increase water-recycling and re-use levels to 75% against the 2015 baseline. No Level 3 or greater water incidents.
• 2030: Reduce the withdrawal of fresh water by 50%

Below we look at a few different way we are working to achieve these targets from around the Group.

Coarse Particle Recovery: El Soldado, Chile

With 75% of our assets located in water-constrained areas, we are working hard to reduce our dependence on water and associated tailings facilities.

We will always need water, but we can get closer to full recovery recycling. Through an integrated system of FutureSmart Mining^TM technologies including coarse particle recovery (CPR) and hydraulic dry stack, we are reducing freshwater usage, moving to closed loop and ultimately dry-processing in our operations, thereby eliminating the need for wet tailings and instead creating stable, dry, economically viable land. The construction of the first such facility is under way at El Soldado, in Chile.

• 2020: Reduce the withdrawal of fresh water by 20%. Increase water-recycling and re-use levels to 75% against the 2015 baseline. No Level 3 or greater water incidents.
• 2030: Reduce the withdrawal of fresh water by 50%

Below we look at a few different way we are working to achieve these targets from around the Group.

Coarse Particle Recovery: El Soldado, Chile

With 75% of our assets located in water-constrained areas, we are working hard to reduce our dependence on water and associated tailings facilities.

We will always need water, but we can get closer to full recovery recycling. Through an integrated system of FutureSmart Mining^TM technologies including coarse particle recovery (CPR) and hydraulic dry stack, we are reducing freshwater usage, moving to closed loop and ultimately dry-processing in our operations, thereby eliminating the need for wet tailings and instead creating stable, dry, economically viable land. The construction of the first such facility is under way at El Soldado, in Chile.

The new demonstration plant uses CPR technology in a novel way using the Hydrofloat™, which combines flotation with gravity concentration, allowing the flotation process to be changed to treat larger-diameter material and permit coarser grinding. Through delivering a waste stream that is easier to handle, capacity in the mill is freed up to increase throughput by 15–20%, while effecting savings of around 20% in energy.

By being able to treat larger size material as opposed to dust size particles, the process also means that water can be more easily separated afterwards, which then enables the dry stacking and storage of that waste, with far fewer wet tailings, reducing water consumption by around 10%, as well as making the whole operation safer.

Reverse Osmosis: Aquila, Australia 

 In January, we commissioned the first of two planned reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment plants at the Aquila metallurgical coal project in the Bowen Basin in Australia, with the aim of reducing the use of fresh water in its mining operations.

Chief Executive Officer of Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business, Tyler Mitchelson said the $5 million water treatment system was currently treating two megalitres of mine affected water (MAW) a day and supporting construction of the Aquila Mine near Middlemount in Central Queensland.

“A planned second RO plant will to be used to recycle a further 2.4 megalitres of MAW - once Aquila becomes operational in early 2022, more than doubling capacity and helping to reduce the reliance on water from local sources during times of drought.

“Aquila will be one of the world’s most technologically advanced underground mines and will showcase our innovation-led approach to sustainable mining. The project is currently supporting 500 jobs.”

You can learn more here. 

Grey Water: Mogalakwena and Rustenburg, South Africa

Our PGMs business strives to use alternative water resources to fresh water in its processes.

Following agreements with three municipalities, our operations at Mogalakwena and Rustenburg use treated effluent, also known as grey water, pumped from the local wastewater treatment works, thereby freeing up potable water for use by local communities and providing adequate facilities for the treatment of sewage outflows from the communities.

When we began operations at our Mogalakwena mine in 2004, we signed an agreement with Polokwane municipality in Limpopo to lay a 68-kilometre pipeline to transport grey water from the Polokwane wastewater treatment works direct to the mine. The initiative by industry to use non-potable water is welcomed in the stressed Limpopo Water Management area. We increased the capacity to 20 megalitres by expanding the grey water offtake agreement in 2013. A second agreement, with Mogalakwena municipality, provided for an additional 37-kilometre pipeline, with a 6-megalitre grey water allocation per day, from Mokopane’s wastewater treatment works to the mine.

We also use grey water at our Rustenburg facilities, following an agreement with Rustenburg municipality. Of a total average daily use of 43 megalitres of water at Mogalakwena, there is now an average of 26 megalitres of grey water allocation from the two wastewater treatment plants, with an average 18 megalitres per day being used. The rest of the demand is supplemented by groundwater, surface run-off, boreholes, seepage into the open pits and water recycled from within our operations. Near Mortimer, we have entered into an agreement with the local municipality to build wastewater treatment works to serve a new low-cost housing project currently under construction.

On the back of this new plant, we have signed an offtake agreement to use the grey water for our operations in the Amandelbult–Mortimer complexes. This plant will be up and running in the next three years, with a capacity of 5 megalitres per day

To learn more about our approach to water stewardship, read our Sustainability Report 2020.