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The drought is chile is mega drought. The lack of water he has reached extraordinary limits. And, since a large amount of water is used for metal extractions, serious cuts were mining activity. The first alarms were triggered by the giant Antofagasta Minerals.
The company that recently reduce your dealer production estimate (copper) by 2021 due to the great drought, then fear spread like wildfire in the Chile’s Mighty Mining, What is the world’s leading exporter of copper.
The company announced in its half-yearly financial report last August that it had reduced its production forecast from a range of 730.00 to 760,000 tonnes to one between 710,000 to 740,000 tonnes due to the lack of precipitation in the region of Coquimbo, where the mine is located. Los Pelambres. This possible reduction would be greater if Los Pelambres were not one of the most efficient operations in the use of water “, warned Iván Arriagada, CEO of the mining company, one of the largest in Chile and owned by the Luksic. Group. ” , publishes Efe.
13 years of mega drought
Chile, a country 4000 kilometers long with very diverse climates and orographies (desert to the north and vast forests and glaciers to the south), suffered the worst drought in 13 years due to climate change.
This winter is one of the driest, with a pluviometric deficit of up to 80% compared to a normal year and 85% of snow, which led the flows and reservoirs to their minimum records and the Government to declare a state of agricultural emergency within a half – dozen regions.
The mining sector, which accounts for 10% of Chilean GDP, is closely monitoring weather forecasts and it is not excluded that other giants will announce further cuts to their forecasts in the coming weeks.
“Without water there is no mining”, Manuel Viera, president of the Chilean Chamber of Mines, alerted Efe that for this year a drop in fine copper production of 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes is estimated.
The most affected mines are, according to the union, those found in the high mountain range, such as Los Bronces, Caserones or El Teniente, the largest underground deposit in the world.
Water shortages, Viera said, “could negatively affect the credit ratings of global mining companies if they are unable to proactively manage the operational and political risks associated with their operations.”
In addition, he added, “it is necessary to consider the tightening of the conditions for obtaining environmental permits which could lengthen the duration of projects and force companies to seek more complex water collection systems” .
With an average of 6 million tons per year, Chile accumulates 28% of the world production of copper, a fundamental metal in the transport of energy and which represents more than 55% of the country’s exports.
Desalination and other solutions
Water is crucial for copper production and there is no process where it is not needed: “On the sulphide route, for example, where copper is crushed and separated as a concentrate, a average 520 liters of water is required per tonne treated. Willy Kracht, an academic at the University of Chile and director of the Center for Copper and Mining Studies (Cesco), told Efe.
The water shortage has therefore severely tested the creativity of the industry, which has been betting for several years on the reuse and desalination of the sea.
According to the Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco), seawater consumption is expected to increase by 156% in 2030 compared to 2019, while inland water use will decrease by 6%. In 2020, seawater accounted for 65% of the water used in copper extraction.
But desalination is not a quick fix. According to Jonathan Barton, professor at the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS), most desalination plants are still under authorization and development.
“A technological revolution is needed to introduce alternatives in the processes of higher water consumption, such as concentration,” he added.
However, environmentalists and many experts believe that the Chilean extractivist model, as well as its private management of water, has helped accelerate the effects of climate change.
A statement that refutes the industry, which defends that it is the fourth largest consumer of water, with between 3% and 4% of the national total, against 72% for agriculture.
Greenpeace: what do we need, copper or water?
For Estefanía González, from Greenpeace, the mining is hidden in these numbers, but “there is a hidden percentage, which is not measured and which are the calls miners’ waters, found in the operation of a mine“.
“Chilean mining is oversized and not suited to the conditions of the climate crisis and, at this rate, in ten more years we are going to have to ask ourselves what we need, be it copper or water, ”added the ecologist.
Drought, concludes Barton, “is the product of climate change, but mining is making it worse in many basins “:” In the north, with historic aridity, the impact of the supercycle has affected the water balance, harming indigenous communities and farmers and degrading wetlands. ”
Eph.
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