BHP Billiton to Build Second Desalinization Plant in Chile

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Giant miner BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) (Melbourne, Australia) is awaiting environmental approval to move forward with the construction of its second desalinization plant to supply water to its Escondida copper operation in Chile.

The project, called "Supplementary Desalinated Water Supply for Minera Escondida," entails the construction of a seawater desalinization plant to be built at the company's facility in Puerto Coloso, in the Antofagasta region on the Pacific coast, where it has operated a 525-liter-per-second desalinization plant since 2006. With a life of 40 years, the new plant will produce approximately 3,200 liters per second of industrial-quality desalinated water using reverse osmosis technology. In addition, the company will build two parallel 180-kilometer water pipelines with high pressure pump stations to conduct the desalinated water from Puerto Coloso to the mine site, about 3,100 meters above sea level in the Andean Mountains. Black & Veatch (Kansas City, Missouri) is providing engineering services for the project. The company expects to complete a feasibility study for the plant by December 2008. Once approved, construction of the project will start in the second half of 2009, with completion scheduled by 2012. The company estimates an investment of about $3 billion to complete the project.

Escondida is the world's largest copper mine, located in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Its operations began in 1990, and since then the mine has been through several expansion phases that have increased production capacity from 320,000 tons to more than 1.2 million tons of fine copper per year. The site includes two open-pit mines, Escondida and Escondida Norte; two concentrator plants, Laguna Seca and Los Colorados; an electro-winning plant and a seawater desalinization plant in Puerto Coloso. Currently, the company is also planning to expand Escondida's operations by adding a third concentrator plant, which will replace the Los Colorados concentrator. For details see related August 25, 2008 article - BHP Billiton to Build Replacement Concentrator at World's Largest Copper Mine in Chile.

BHP Billiton is the main owner and operator of Minera Escondida Limitada (Antofagasta, Chile), controlling a 57.5% stake. In Chile, BHP also owns the Cerro Colorado and Spence mines. Rio Tinto plc (NYSE:RTP) (London) holds 30% of Escondida while an additional 10% is held by a Japanese consortium led by Mitsubishi Corporation (TYO:8058) (Tokyo), and the remaining 2.5% by International Finance Corporation (Washington, D.C.).

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