Severn Trent Wins Desalination Contract in Chile

Copper and gold mines in Antofagasta, Chile, will soon benefit from a desalination plant built by US-based Severn Trent Services.

The 634,000 gallons per day (gpd) plant will use ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis (RO) systems to treat seawater drawn from the Pacific Ocean.

Seawater will be pumped to the mine, where 5% of seawater will be processed to obtain pure water.

The plant will be equipped with two Severn Trent Services UAT 705,000gpd (2,671m³ per day) UF trains using DOW UF membranes and two Severn Trent Services UAT 634,000gpd (2,400m³ day) RO trains using DOW FILMTEC 16in membranes.

The UF pretreatment system will operate at 90% recovery, while the single-pass RO system will operate at 45% recovery, to produce water quality below 400ppm total dissolved solids, the company said.

Commissioned by Santiago-based Proequipos, the plant is owned jointly by Antofagasta of London with a 70% stake and Marubeni Corporation of Tokyo, with a stake of 30%.

Construction of the plant is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2010.