Case Study

Clermont Coal Mine Wastewater Recycling

Rio Tinto is one of the world's leading mining and exploration companies. As part of the development of their new A$950M Clermont Mine in Central Queensland, they specified that all wastewater from the mine accommodation camp would be recycled for on-site reuse. Together with their engineering partners, SKM, they chose Stornoway Water to provide a high quality wastewater recycling system capable of producing Class A+ recycled water.

Challenge

Rio Tinto's new Clermont coal mine was employing 400 people in the construction phase and approximately 380 during operations. The new mine required significant infrastructure including a large accommodation camp and the associated sewage treatment facilities.

Rio Tinto needed to find a solution that would minimise the environmental impacts of the development and keep within a tight budget. As a result, tenders were called for a sewage treatment plant that would provide high quality recycled water to conserve this highly valuable resource.

Solution

Stornoway Water put forward a system combining the Aqeo® AS 150 sewage treatment plant for secondary treatment, with an Aqeo® UF 150 tertiary polishing plant. Not only was it an economical system, particularly due to the factory manufacture, but more importantly capable of producing a very high grade treated effluent (Class A+) that is suitable for a wide range of beneficial water re-use applications. Class A+ is the highest grade of recycled water currently permitted under Queensland or Australian regulations. The recycled water will be used for a range of purposes including dust suppression and even fire fighting.

Stornoway Water was able to work very effectively with Rio Tinto and SKM to ensure compatibility with the strict health and safety requirement as well as tailor the plant to meet specific electrical and telecommunication standards. Stornoway also successfully completed a comprehensive installation, start-up and commissioning program, including all associated site works.

Results

The treatment system was designed, supplied, installed and commissioned within a 30 week period, meeting the timeframes required by the Client to correspond with populating of the camp.

Since completion of commissioning, the plant has exceeded all performance standards for Class A+ recycled water.