Water for Mining | Black & Veatch
Mining Industries

Water

Access world leading experience in the most advanced and efficient ways to manage, move, supply, treat and reuse mine water resource and deliver on your environmental and sustainability goals.

#4

ENR 2020 Top Design Firms
Water Supply

#4

ENR 2020 Top Design Firms
Water Treatment, Desalination Plants

#9

ENR 2020 Top Design Firms
Water Transmission Lines & Aqueducts

We know water management, supply and treatment

Responsible mining companies are taking greater control of minimizing their water acquisition and consumption. They recognize how climate-change related risks can devastate operations and local community life from flooding to drought, and are taking a proactive approach to advanced water management at every stage of the mine lifecycle.

Partnering to create holistic and resilient solutions that clean, move, control and protect water resources sustainably means governments, communities and mining companies can preserve water supplies and continue to create shared economic value. Mining companies are turning to alternative means of supplies such as seawater or brackish desalination, water recycling or water reuse to create new sustainable pathways and meet increasingly ambitious environmental targets.

Black & Veatch's team of professionals dedicated to the mining industry fully understand the complexities of large site operations and their special water and environmental needs. They can tap into the global experience of more than 2,000 water and wastewater professionals across the company to find the right solutions for each unique situation.

For example, BHP's Escondida Water Supply project in Chile, which Black & Veatch was involved with, delivers 75 million gallons of treated seawater per day to the Escondida mine, the largest copper mine in the world.

Water management across the full mine lifecycle

Black & Veatch provides total integrated water management solutions for all stages of a mining project, from concept through detailed design, construction, commissioning, operations to closure. As your partner in sustainable mining, we provide a complete delivery model through all development stages and focus on developing safe, efficient and resilient facilities that are environmentally compliant and minimize risk to our client, surrounding communities and the environment. This comprehensive approach helps provide you with cost and schedule certainty and efficiently move you through each stage of your front-end loading process. 

Our integrated mine water management approach is built on experts who specialize in all aspects of the water cycle, including hydrology, hydraulics, hydrogeology and water quality as well as geotechnical and environmental. Our global experience allows us to provide cost-effective, efficient and practical solutions for water management for any geography.

Better Outcomes

Access unsurpassed experience across all aspects of the water cycle to create highly accurate scopes, cost estimates and schedules through to the delivery of holistic and resilient water solutions that lower operational risks, improve community outcomes and save money. 

Integrated Solutions

With full view and expertise across the water cycle, we plan and deliver sustainable water and environmental solutions across your entire mine life that maximize shared value for your shareholders and community stakeholders. 

Safety

Our expansive view of safety and prevention together with detailed and efficient planning are at the heart of successful projects.

Your partner in sustainable mining

Since our first project more than one hundred years ago, we have been at forefront of designing alternative and advanced water and environmental solutions, which include:

  • Water Supply including industry leading experience across alternative supplies such as desalination, water reuse and aquifer recharge.
  • Water Treatment solutions specific to the mining industry, including for acid rock drainage, selenium, arsenic, metals, sulphates, TDS and cyanide, and infrastructure to manage contact and non-contact water.
  • Mine Water Management including diversion management and water balance modelling.
  • Conveyance and Storage Systems including energy-efficient pumping systems, dams, tunnel and other surface and underground infrastructure.
  • Intakes and Outfalls and other marine infrastructure.
  • Environmental Compliance and science solutions including environmental impact studies and environmental permitting, as well as air and water quality management .
  • Mine Closure Planning & Remediation as well as related floodplain and watershed analysis and modelling.

Black & Veatch understands the unique sustainability challenges facing the industry and offer solutions that are resilient, sustainable and efficient.

Meet Black & Veatch

We seek partners in innovation. Let's start the conversation.