SMI-ICE-Chile partners with Trends Industrial for desalination supply system

The University of Queen’s Sustainable Minerals Institute Centre of Excellence in Chile (SMI-ICE-Chile) has signed an agreement with Trends Industrial to collaborate on an integrated multi-user desalination supply system in the Atacama region of Chile.

The Atacama region faces severe drought condition. For the continued industrial development, the region’s industries, especially by the mining sector, depends on a sustainable water supply.

SMI-ICE-Chile executive director professor David Mulligan said the two entities both have been exploring the development of multi-user water supply systems with shared infrastructure alternatives.

He added: “SMI-ICE-Chile is drawing on the skills and expertise of researchers in SMI’s Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry (CWiMI) under this agreement, and initial project funding to support the development of tools for planning regional water supplies has come from SMI’s Complex Orebodies programme.

“This approach will allow for the development of a sustainable mining industry, and provide a mechanism for communities and other industries access to the key resource of water. There is opportunity for integrated multi-user systems that optimise costs and minimise impacts through the inclusion of innovative solutions.

“The mining industry is responding and seeking to adopt and implement the outcomes of such initiatives.”

Trends Industrial is the firm behind the solar-powered desalination project, Energías y Aguas del Pacífico project (ENAPAC) in the Atacama region for the stability of the industrial water supply.

Trends Industrial CEO Rodrigo Silva said this collaborative approach is expected to boost efficiencies.

He added: “This is a sustainable project from a socio-environmental and economic perspective.

“It has the potential to reduce the impact on the territory and improve efficiencies, as we have seen in other large-scale mining projects in Chile which collaborated in this way.”