WATER

COST VERSUS BENEFIT:

A delicate balance

Calls for sustainable mining have grown louder over the last few years, with most mining operations under severe pressure to improve methods and lessen their environmental impact. So, where exactly does one begin?

Maintaining a license to operate, while ensuring effective sustainability measures are in place, requires a delicate balance of cost versus benefit – where the benefit of improved processes today far outweighs the cost of tomorrow’s remediation.

A starting point, through alignment with the sustainable development goals (SDGs), means mining companies are being called to: • Produce less waste • Improve safety processes • Implement sustainable technologies • Contribute to community wellbeing • Curb pollution • Be more environmentally conscious

Veolia, through proven expertise and key technologies, offers value to the mining industry through: • Responsible water management • Resource recovery • Waste management • Industrial cleaning • Energy efficiency

As water-intensive operations, responsible water management in a mine is key in cost containment. Veolia’s approach examines the total wastewater strategy and offers tailored solutions that enable long-term sustainable benefits for the operations. As water scarcity becomes a reality, Veolia’s solutions are aimed at preserving this natural resource, finding alternative solutions, as well as implementing recycling technologies.

Veolia’s approach to a mining client will start with a water audit on the site. In this way, we can make sound recommendations regarding the management of all the water resources, process and wastewater. We address the risks associated with water management and produce a strategy to mitigate these risks by upgrading facilities on site or through the introduction of new technologies that supplement existing infrastructure.

Since water management is not the core business of a mining operation, Veolia offers highly advanced operations and maintenance expertise to assist clients with guaranteed compliance in all forms of the water cycle. Such a contract ensures that operations can continue without the threat of any water-related issues having an impact on production.

Veolia has more than 350 proprietary technologies and has grown its portfolio of digital tools to assist in consistent and continued water management control. Our Hubgrade™ is a combination of digital tools and expertise that make water processes smarter, safer and more sustainable. With the scarcity of natural resources becoming increasingly evident, the efficient management of water, energy and raw materials is vital. The implementation of Hubgrade™ allows for customised and real-time monitoring, which allows customers to save on costs and reduce consumption.

Veolia’s innovative technologies addresses the management of water for communities and industrial customers in the: • production of drinking water and industrial process water (including production of ultrapure water, seawater desalination and treatment of new pollutants) • treatment and recycling of wastewater of all kinds, including the treatment and recovery of waste (organic matter, salts, metals, complex molecules and energy) using innovative solutions to produce reagents, green energy, fertilisers and even bioplastics

We proudly boast outstanding operations and maintenance expertise as well as around-the-clock support, both onsite and offsite.

For Veolia, ecological transformation means working to radically change patterns of production and consumption through our various solutions. This is done in such a way to ensure sustainability as well as a positive impact on the environment for all stakeholders. Thus Veolia, operating at high levels of health and safety, can assist mining operations with reconciling production and environmental outputs through costeffective but sustainable solutions in the water, waste and energy sectors. This will ensure not only mine operations longevity but also reduce the risk of severe penalties and even possible closures.