The mining company Compañía Minera Doña Inés de Collahuasi (CMDIC) has awarded ACCIONA the design and construction of a seawater desalination plant at Collahuasi’s Patache Port, 70 km south of the city of Iquique, in the Tarapacá region of Chile, ACCIONA says.

The project, which is part of the “Infrastructure Development and Productive Capacity Improvement Plan” for CMDIC’s operations in the Tarapacá region, also includes ACCIONA’s operation and maintenance of the plant for two years, with an option to extend for another three years.

The desalination plant at the Patache Port will have an initial capacity of 1,050 liters per second. The project includes the execution of maritime works and a pre-treatment system, as well as the development of reverse osmosis and post-treatment technology to guarantee the availability of water resources, the quality of which must be adjusted to the different operating conditions of the mining company.

CMDIC is one of the major Chilean mining companies engaged in the extraction and production of copper concentrate, as well as one of the largest in the world.

The construction of this new seawater desalination plant consolidates ACCIONA’s position as one of the leading companies in the water treatment business for mining operations in Chile, it says.