Water has always been an issue for Australian mining operations – the famous story of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme in the late 19th Century is a prime example of how the resource was managed in the formative years of the industry.
Charles Yelverton O’Connor designed the pipeline from Mundaring Weir to the Eastern Goldfields in Western Australia to provide much-needed water to communities and mines in the then-remote region.
Reliable water access in isolated mining areas remains a key issue in Australia, but it is now joined by concerns being increasingly experienced in the country’s diverse environments.
As Deloitte’s 2018 Tracking the Trends report states, “floods, ice melt and severe storms have the potential to create excess water,” an issue that can be equally as damaging.
The mining sectors in Queensland and New South Wales know all too well about the threat of floods and severe storms, having felt the impact of a number of cyclones over the past decade that suspended operations.
Abnormal events, blamed on phenomenon like El Nino, have further introduced climate change as a consideration that must be taken into account when mining companies develop water management strategies, both for now and into the future.
Paul Dobson, Deloitte Asia-Pacific sustainability and climate risk partner, says long-term concerns like climate change and the resilience measures required in preparation for it have come to the fore.
“Companies not only have to manage water usage, but also the long-term aspects like climate change and how they interact with communities,” Dobson tells Australian Mining.
“The interplay between water and social licence has become stronger and stronger. The social and broader climate change impacts potentially mean less water in the long term, but also likely mean extreme events like increased flooding.”
The size of Australia means its mining regions often have to deal with vastly different conditions and water management considerations, Dobson adds. The major miners, with operations throughout the country, need to be prepared for all of these conditions.
“In the north, in the tropical regions, if cyclones and floods get more extreme you have to manage those events and the resilience aspect much more than to the south where it is dryer,” he says.
New mining technologies join weather as another factor that is influencing how companies have to manage water at operations, according to David Cormack, partner at Deloitte.
As ore grades decline, more water is needed to extract the same amount of ore, pushing up water requirements in the industry to use these technologies.
Cormack says an example of these technologies is in situ recovery, a process used to extract minerals like copper through boreholes drilled into a deposit.
“One of the challenges with in situ extraction is containment and part of that containment is the ground water situation. It is kind of a catch 22 for mining companies,” Cormack tells Australian Mining.
In light of the challenge new technologies create, mining companies must enhance their approach to water management by finding more innovative ways to reuse and recycle water, the Deloitte report continues.
As these elements come into play, Dobson believes water management will continue to emerge as an issue for mining companies in much the same way energy efficiency has in recent years.
“I think water is now being seen as the next big thing from a macro country perspective,” he says.
“The broader trend has been more about how we measure carbon usage and carbon prices, but how do we also leverage water?
“It is a big issue already and it is only going to get bigger and more diverse because of the climate change impacts that are going to roll out in the coming decades.”
Deloitte’s leading strategies for water management:
Conduct a water risk assessment
Risk assessments allow companies to gain a clear understanding of the risk factors associated with their current water use, such as impact on operations if local water levels drop or the potential disruptions they may face due to extreme weather conditions.
Put a cost to water
In an age of water scarcity, it is becoming imperative to price water on a full cost basis, taking into account not only its access cost, but also the costs associated (for instance) with its treatment and chemical alteration, to monitor wastewater or tailings facilities over the course of decades, and to build treatment or desalination plants.
Using digital technology to manage water use
New technologies give companies the ability to monitor the quantity of their water intake in real time, determine how much water is required for various mining processes, and track the quality of the water they retain in their tailings facilities or release into the environment.
Rethink traditional mining processes
Companies that are achieving true innovation in water management tend to take regional factors into account before a mine is ever built. This has seen some companies adopt increasingly innovative water management approaches.
Take a shared value approach to water use
Mining companies need to look at water through an integrated water management framework to determine how to share this critical resource among competing stakeholders. The aim is to ensure that downstream water users are not negatively affected by decisions made by upstream players.