Reuters reports that Chile’s state-owned mining company Codelco, the largest copper producer in the world, received environmental approval this week to build a $1 billion desalination plant to supply water to its operations in the country’s northern region.

The go-ahead from the Antofagasta region’s environmental regulator will allow the company to expand its Radomiro Tomic mine and advance with an ambitious investment plan in its water-intensive mining operations in one of the driest deserts in the world. The plant would be the second-largest desalination plant in the South American country, behind the one supplying BHP’s Escondida copper mine, the largest in the world.

In its original tender announcement last year, Codelco stated that the initial capacity of the project, which shall benefit Codelco’s operations in the Region of Antofagasta, will be 630 litres per second (l/s) and a potential 1,680 l/s. The project include marine works, desalination plant, and an approximately 160 km pipeline and relevant pumping system to transfer the water, as well as the associated electrical infrastructure.