MiningWater – Mining water recovery using innovative technologies for saving fresh water

Initial situation

• Conflicts of water use due to increasing water demand from population growth and industrial development combined with inadequate wastewater treatment
• Loses of water and valuable material due to wastewater collection in tailing ponds in phosphate mining
• Previous solutions technically and economically unsuccessful due to complex and varying wastewater compositions

Project objectives

• Reduction of freshwater demand through water recovery from mining wastewater using the example of phosphate mining
• Increased added value by recycling of occurring concentrates
• Water savings potential: 3 million m³ of water per year and mine – factor 40 if transferred to phosphate mines in Middle East and North Africa
• Partial decoupling of production and freshwater by use of combination of innovative and robust process technologies

Innovative approaches

• Separation of phosphate-containing solids in µm range in corrosive wastewater using energy-efficient ceramic flat sheet membranes with high permeate fluxes
• Separation of polyvalent ions (e.g. sulphate) using new types of suitable resins and selective nanofiltration membranes
• Separation of chlorides using low-cost polymer membranes or flexible membrane-assisted capacitive deionisation (MCDI)
• Additional value creation through valorisation of phosphate-containing solids and sulphates from concentrates produced

• ceramic flat sheet membrane
• concentrate treatment
• desalination
• ion separation
• membrane based capacitive deionisation
• phosphate mining
• selective nanofiltration
• valuable recovery
• Wastewater
• water recovery