Winner: Water Care
Winner: Companies with innovative environmental strategies that improve business performance Anglo Coal Emalahleni
South Africa’s first water reclamation plant, the Emalahleni Water Reclamation Project, is expected to be up and running by July. The project is a brainchild of Anglo Coal South Africa and is this year’s winning project in Greening the Future’s category of companies with innovative environmental strategies that improve business performance.
The plant will treat water from the underground workings of mines into potable quality water for the Witbank municipality in Mpumalanga. It involved an investment of R296-million and saves the municipality from researching the development of new capital-intensive water infrastructure.
”To take polluted water and treat it to potable water, the whole concept is quite unique,” says Peter Gunter, Anglo Coal’s project manager. ”We are going to provide 20% of what they need,” says Gunter of the 20 megalitres that the plant will produce daily for the municipality. Five megalitres will be supplied to neighbouring Anglo Coal.
Along with BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa (Becsa), Anglo Coal has set up a mine-water collection system to pump excess water from three Anglo Coal collieries — Kleinkopje, Greenside and Landau — and Becsa’s defunct south Witbank mine. The treated potable water will be pumped from the planned storage reservoirs to the municipal water reservoirs.
The Emalahleni municipality has been pumping water in excess of its limit from the Witbank Dam and is in dire need of another source of water to meet the needs of domestic, industrial and commercial users.
Because coal-mining methods disrupt the natural water cycle, Anglo Coal has been involved in extensive research and development in mine-water treatment technologies for the past 10 years. The project prevents polluted water also from filtering into the environment and being decanted into the local river system.
The mine-water desalination plant will run at a recovery in excess of 99% through desalination technology that maximises water recovery and minimised waste. The commercial treatment is used around the world, says Gunter, and in the Middle East it is used to desalinate sea water.
A successful trial at the Landau colliery ran for more than a year, demonstrating how the main plant would operate.
Two research projects are planned to convert gypsum waste into by-products, such as sulphur, magnesium and limestone, and to create building and mining products, while liquid waste or brine will be turned into spirulina or possibly biofuels. The aim is to make valuable by-products from the waste and achieve a zero-waste disposal plant, says Gunter.
Highlighted benefits of the project are job-creation, investment in infrastructure and capacity-building in water technology. Similar plans are being drawn up for the nearby Steve Tshwete local municipality, which serves Middleburg in Mpumalanga and is led by BHP Billiton with Anglo Coal also taking part in the project.
”Fantastic project,” said the judges, who found it comprehensive in its approach and rooted in welfare and development. The judges felt that the project was breaking new ground. Anglo’s whole approach, as evidenced by the project, was becoming more holistic, said the judges.
”It is innovative and an essential approach to dwindling resources,” the judges concluded.