Seawater Desalination for Mining Operations

Chile's copper mining industry operates in one of the driest places on Earth — the Atacama Desert — where freshwater is scarce and contested. The industry has invested over $10 billion in seawater desalination plants along the Pacific coast, pumping desalinated water through pipelines ascending 3,000+ meters to mine sites inland. This represents the world's largest deployment of desalination for industrial mining, with reverse osmosis plants producing hundreds of thousands of cubic meters daily.

The technology challenge is pumping: lifting water from sea level to mine elevations above 3,000 meters requires massive energy input and sophisticated pipeline engineering to handle extreme elevation changes, temperature variations, and seismic forces. Mines are increasingly integrating solar PV to power both desalination and pumping, creating self-sufficient water-energy systems. BHP's Escondida mine operates one of the world's largest desalination plants specifically for mining.

Desalination for mining is a climate adaptation technology with global implications. As climate change reduces freshwater availability in mining regions worldwide — from Peru to Australia to southern Africa — Chile's proven model of coastal desalination with long-distance pumping provides a template. The technology also resolves social conflicts between mining companies and agricultural communities over freshwater rights, which have been among Chile's most politically charged environmental issues.