More water for communities thanks to Anglo
With residents still battling with a shortage of freshwater, Anglo American Platinum Mines has come up with water programmes to reduce the usage of freshwater.
LIMPOPO – Hermien Oberholzer, Anglo American Platinum’s principal water management engineer, said in a statement that the company is making significant progress in its goal to reduce its dependency on freshwater at the operations in the North West and Limpopo, thereby improving the water security of its surrounding communities.
According to Oberholzer, the company’s potable water usage as a percentage of total water usage was 29% in 2020, down from 38% in 2016.
“This was achieved in three main ways which included re-using water on site, embarking on projects to use less water and using poor quality water that was not used by communities, like municipal wastewater.”
She explained the Mogalakwena mine has installed seven scavenger wells to mitigate the pollution plume migrating around its Blinkwater tailings storage facility, resulting in a recovery of around 600 000 litres of water a day. Mogalakwena’s return-water dam has also been dredged, which helps maintain a high water level while avoiding spills during the rainy season.
The company currently uses potable water, mostly provided by a water board or municipality, raw water from rivers, dams and boreholes, and treated effluent from municipalities. Potable or good quality raw water may be used domestically, while agriculture mostly uses raw water or, depending on the crops, treated effluent.
The mining industry can use poor quality water such as treated effluent, although potable water is needed for some of its processes.
To reduce freshwater needs, the company has invested heavily in municipal wastewater treatment initiatives.
This includes upgrading the Polokwane wastewater treatment plant at a cost of around R118 million, and an ongoing effluent treatment project in Rustenburg, which will reduce its dependency on potable water from Rand Water while improving water security for the town.
“An added benefit of our wastewater projects is that we’re paying the Polokwane, Mokopane and Rustenburg municipalities for their treated effluent, providing them with a much-needed additional income stream where previously none existed,” said Oberholzer.
Other water-saving measures include the possible use of floating solar panels as dam covers at Anglo American Platinum’s Amandelbult mine, which saves energy while reducing evaporation losses on its pollution control dams. With an average evaporation rate of around 1 800mm per year, early indications are that floating solar panels may reduce evaporation by 85%, resulting in a freshwater saving of about 38 million litres a year.
“South Africa is a water-stressed country, and all the catchment areas in which we operate; Crocodile West, Olifants, Sand and Mogalakwena, are under pressure. For Anglo American Platinum to operate sustainably, reduce our impact on the environment and give our communities greater water security, we must reduce our freshwater use and manage our water usage at our operations,” Oberholzer concluded.
