I was thinking about Bindi and groundwater cones and wondered...

I was thinking about Bindi and groundwater cones and wondered how the surrounding salt lakes/palaeodrainge system would be involved in that. Simplistically from Google Earth:



A starter pit would be surrounded by non farmland on 3 sides. Final pit would be much larger.

The hydrology concerns may be of inflows from the palaeochannels surrounding the pit rather than a draw down cone. Studies to be done. Some work was carried out several years back though probably more to see if they could get process water out of the channels.

Saline waste water?
Best to find a use perhaps but could be put into the existing system as one way to move it off site. Obviously this would need to be well engineered to minimise downstream impacts along the channel that extends some 50+ Kms to the south.

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Upfront expenditure on carbon neutral (or other) items can in fact reap cost savings as well as environmental benefits over the life of a mine.


One simple example might be electric assisted haul trucks. Apparently these trucks operate at 2-3 times the speed going up loaded out of the pit as compared to their diesel counterparts. This also translates into less maintenance.

Some (many?) mines of the future will have renewable energy resources to power a/the majority of requirements. Some already do this in Australia and probably Chile as this solar array near S32's partial acquisition (Sierra Gorda) shows.





Oz Minerals West Musgrave Cu/Ni cost benefit of Renewables vs diesel is apparently a game changer.

CVV are in the fortunate position of having the option to buy grid based renewables (mostly?) or costing a standalone. The latter is more expensive - at the moment.