Chapter 3
I Background
II Early European Settlements
III Assessment Of Available Water Resources
IV Water Supplies For Goldmining Development
V Irrigation Development
VI Farm And Stock Water Supplies
VII Urban Water Supplies
i Reticulation systems
ii Water treatment
iii Water saving techniques
iv Desalination
v Conjunctive use - West Pilbara water supply
vi Conjunctive use - Newcastle and district water supply scheme
vii Olympic Dam mining project - water supply
viii Urban water supply dams in South Australia
ix Multi-purpose schemes - the Wivenhoe project
VIII Wastewater Management And Treatment
IX Water Quality Management
X Limnological And Water Quality Research
XI New Techniques In Water Resource Planning And Management
XII Legislation
XIII Conclusion
XIV List Of Abbreviations
XV Acknowledgements
XVI Plantations-high Productivity Resources
References
Index
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Olympic Dam mining project - water supply
Water supply for the new Olympic Dam Mining Project in South Australia poses some interesting technical problems. This project, located in a very arid area, involves one of the world's largest undeveloped copper-uranium gold deposits. There is effectively no surface water at the site and it will be necessary to use highly saline local aquifers and mine drainage, and brackish water from the Great Artesian Basin, some 100 km distant. The net water requirement for the initial project is 12.5 ML/d, including 4.7 ML/d of desalinated water for potable and process use.It is considered that the most economic approach will be to desalinate the better quality water from the Great Artesian Basin for potable use and some process requirements, and use the local saline water for other purposes requiring a lower standard of water. Desalination will be carried out by electrodialysis or reverse osmosis.
Pending the construction of the permanent supply and treatment works, a pilot 200 m3/d electrodialysis plant has been in operation at Olympic Dam village. Brackish Great Artesian Basin feed water has been trucked to the site on 80 t road tankers and is stored in a lined and covered pool. Overall design provides for the lowest possible operating cost consistent with the differing water quality requirements of the various processes and the maximization of re-use of waste-water from all sources.
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Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering |  |
© 1988 Print Edition page 176, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/180.html