PRESS RELEASE: The award of the contract follows a period of extensive due diligence and test work conducted by Fosterville to validate the efficacy of Clean TeQ’s DeSALx system for the treatment of mining process waters. The value of the contract is A$3.5 million (US$2.7 million).

Sustainable water management is becoming critically important in the mining industry as environmental regulations are tightened globally and water scarcity increases. The Fosterville water treatment plant is an important reference project for Clean TeQ’s DeSALx technology.

Fosterville operates the Fosterville gold mine near Bendigo, around three hours’ drive north-west of Melbourne. During the mining process, groundwater is produced, which is currently stored at surface in limited capacity dams on the mine site.

To create a more sustainable water management strategy, Fosterville approached Clean TeQ to provide a system that will treat the mine water to match the quality of the region’s underlying aquifer. Fosterville can then use managed aquifer injection (MAI) to return the water to its natural source, or alternatively, use the treated water from the Clean TeQ plant for further treatment and subsequent recycling and re-use of the water. 

The Fosterville water treatment plant will comprise an integrated precipitation and continuous ionic filtration process (DeSALx). 

The precipitation process removes arsenic and antimony from the water as a coprecipitate. The water is then treated by the DeSALx process to remove hardness, sulphate and other dissolved metals. 

Design of the Fosterville water treatment plant is already underway, with equipment supply, installation and commissioning all scheduled for 2018.