BHP’s Olympic Dam uranium mine the reason for desalination plant
Olympic Dam, South Australia BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company The most ambitious mining-water supply project, which includes the expansion of the associated mine—it will become the world’s largest uranium producer…But the expansion depends on a coastal desalination plant— —at Point Lowly on southern Australia’s Spencer Gulf. Four pumping stations will move water through the 320-kilometer (200-mile) pipeline, providing nearly 90 percent of the 83 million cubic meters (22 billion gallons) of water the mine will use each year for ore processing and dust suppression,
Australia Builds Desalination Plants and Pipelines to Bring Water to Mines, Circle of Blue WaterNews, 05 April 2011 To feed water-hungry mining industries, similar plans are in the works to supply drought-ridden regions of Australia and China. As is the case in China, Australia—one of the world’s largest coal, copper, and uranium producers—suffers from a geographical mismatch of water resources and mineral deposits…….there are plans for a multi-billion-dollar network of water infrastructure projects—a desalination plant, dams, and more than a thousand kilometers of pipelines, most of which will be approved this year—that will transport water from reservoirs, aquifers, and the ocean to mines in the states of South Australia,Western Australia, and Queensland, Australia’s leading coal producer….
Olympic Dam, South Australia
Completed 11 years after expansion is approved
BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company
The most ambitious mining-water supply project, which includes the expansion of the associated mine—it will become the world’s largest uranium producer and fourth-largest copper producer, in addition to gold and silver production. But the expansion depends on a coastal desalination plant—much like the proposed Bohai Pipeline, to supply northern China’s coal regions—at Point Lowly on southern Australia’s Spencer Gulf. Four pumping stations will move water through the 320-kilometer (200-mile) pipeline, providing nearly 90 percent of the 83 million cubic meters (22 billion gallons) of water the mine will use each year for ore processing and dust suppression, along with drinkingwater for residential areas near the site…..
Uranium mining is a sensless act of vandalism.It undermines the consequnces of Nature and compromises a quality life of the future generations.To export toxic materials to overseas,companies are now actively engaged in ‘desalination’,to dump more toxic chemicals into the sea.Where is the end for the human greed?
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