Municipal and industrial water solutions provider Veolia Water Technologies has started preliminary activities at the Greenbushes lithium mine water treatment plant in Western Australia.
Construction of the Greenbushes lithium mine water treatment plant is scheduled to be completed and operational in 2019.
Veolia technologies used at the water treatment plant allow the doubling of output at the largest hard rock lithium mine in the world, satisfying all environmental requirements regarding discharge water.
Located in Greenbushes, about 250 km south of Perth, Western Australia, Talison Lithium is a global producer of lithium. The lithium mined is used in batteries for consumer electronics, electric bicycles, buses and passenger vehicles. It is also used in aerospace alloys, wind turbines, glass and ceramics.
The Greenbushes lithium mine water treatment plant will be constructed using some of Veolia Water Technologies’ core technologies.
After extensive engineering and testwork, Veolia Water Technologies will provide a water treatment plant solution based on ACTIFLO clarification, CeraMem ultrafiltration, high recovery reverse osmosis and two stage EVALED thermal evaporation. The water treatment plant is designed to treat a maximum feed flow of 150 m3/h and achieve the highest overall water recovery possible.
This new water treatment plant will enable Talison Lithium to enhance the output from the Greenbushes operations and satisfy the environmental requirements to reduce lithium contained in the on-site mine water prior to discharge to the environment.
Talison Lithium’s headquarters are in Perth and the company has more than 140 employees located in Australia, Canada, Chile and China. The lithium orebody at Greenbushes is unique in that it contains large zones of high grade lithium ore. Lithium has been produced from the Greenbushes operations for more than 25 years and Talison Lithium currently exports more than 350 000 t of lithium products yearly to a global customer base.
Veolia Water Technologies provides water and wastewater treatment solutions to private and public sector organisations throughout Australasia – offering the complete range of services required to design, build, operate, maintain, upgrade and manage water and wastewater treatment facilities and systems. At Veolia, the company draws on comprehensive and advanced international expertise, covering areas, such as water chemistry, water reuse and desalination.