Water down the road at Rio Tinto20 Dec 2017 15:08
As a resource-intensive industry, Rössing Uranium’s operations impact on natural resources and the environment. For this reason, the mine evaluates, plans and manages such impacts on an ongoing basis and at all stages of its activities. We continually report on our environmental performance in a transparent manner.
Rössing Uranium is conscious of the fact that water is a precious resource; and because the mining industry is typically a large water user, water conservation measures at the mine are taken seriously.
As the mine is located in the Namib Desert, water management is a one of the most crucial environmental and operational focus areas of our activities. Water management includes all aspects of groundwater pumping, seepage management as well as storage, reuse and recycling of surface and groundwater.
Since 1980, we have been recycling 60 to 70 per cent of our water which is indicative of an effective water management strategy.
Every year, as part of our continuous improvement focus, we set demanding goals for ourselves for the efficient use of water. Our operating plan of 2016 set a target for fresh water use of 2.9 million cubic metres (m³) supplied by NamWater. The actual consumption of fresh water came to 2.1 million m³ only in 2016.
How much water would a plant need and it appears industry standards indicate 60-70% is recycled?