The water shortage in Chile in the last decade has forced mining companies to take measures to ensure the supply of
this vital element to their operations, avoid
overconsumption and increase the recovery and reuse of
water in all their production processes.
This is the case of the Codelco Chuquicamata (DCH) and
Ministro Hales (DMH) divisions, which need to ensure the
necessary water supply to continue processing sulfide ore
in their concentrator plants and meet production targets.
Given the above, it is expected to increase the recovery of
water from the tailings deposited in the Talabre Dam, which
would have an impact on a reduction of the make up for the
process and would free up fresh resources from the
mountain range.

Identify technological solutions or methodologies to optimize water recovery from the tailings dam and/or
reduce losses of this vital element in the tailings dam.
The proposed technologies or methodologies shall be
applied after the tailings are discharged into the tailings
dam.

The proposed technological solution must meet the
following requirements:
– Do not generate pollution and damage to the
environment.
– Its application must not interfere with the fulfillment of production plans.
– No adverse effects on mining and metallurgical
processes.
– Minimal human resource requirements for
implementation.
– In the case of equipment, they must have autonomy for
safe movement between sectors flooded with water and
tailings.
– Minimal maintainability requirements and Heavy Duty
constructability characteristics in the case of equipment.
– Technology maturity level TRL ≥ 7, i.e., at least one
prototype tested in an operational environment.
– Comply with the safety and environmental standards of
the Codelco Norte district.

Currently, tailings from the DCH and DMH
concentrator plants are discharged into the Talabre Dam, from which it is possible to
recover an average of 57,600 m3/day. It is
expected to increase water recovery from the fraction retained in the tailings and reduce
evaporation losses to achieve 60,100 m3/day.

• Risks of non-compliance with production
plans.
• Dam volume capacity loss.

Permanently

Recovery by pumping from the clear water pond.

No new technologies have been tested to
recover water from tailings or to prevent
evaporation.

The following will not be considered in the background evaluation process:
– Advisory services, consultancies or engineering studies.
– Solutions considering the use of chemical
reagents.
– Solutions for tailings thickener optimization.