water for areva uranium mine

Seawater converted to potable water for Areva uranium mine


JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) Specialist water treatment firm Keyplan, which is a subsidiary of JSE-listed Aveng, on Friday officially launched the 55 000-m/d Trekkopje seawater desalination plant, near Swakopmund, in Namibia.

The plant, which Keyplan designed and built, converts seawater from the Atlantic Ocean into potable water for use at Areva Resources Namibias Trekkopje opencast uranium mine.

However, the plants modular design would allow for its expansion to meet future domestic, commercial and industrial needs for the Southern African country, which was classified as being 98% arid or semi-arid.

Water and power are potentially limiting factors for economic development, particularly for an arid country like Namibia. Seawater desalination therefore presents a practical solution. In Trekkopjes case, there is the added advantage of flexibility to cater for growing domestic, commercial and industrial needs over time due to the modular means of construction used in the design of the plant, Aveng Group CEO Roger Jardine commented.

The plant was now being commissioned and had already produced high-quality water, said Aveng, explaining that the seawater was desalinated through an energy-efficient, reverse-osmosis process.

It had the capacity to produce 20-million cubic metres a day of treated water, with about 40% of the seawater being converted into treated water and the remaining 60% returned to the sea.

Jardine noted that these water treatment solutions could play a significant role in dealing with security of water supply throughout Southern Africa, and other continents, where arid conditions were a humanitarian concern and a restriction on industrial growth.

The Trekkopje mine required about 14-million cubic metres a year of fresh water to operate.
Edited by: Mariaan Webb