Plant to produce 1400 litres a second: The pilot plant will not produce fresh water but once it has been completed and successfully tested it will pave the way for the construction of the biggest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere. The completed plant will provide two-thirds of its desalinated water to BHP’s Olympic Dam, while the remainder will be pumped to Upper Spencer Gulf and some Eyre Peninsula residents. It will produce more than 1400 litres of water a second once completed.
Plant to be built within two months, trialled for 13: BHP expects the plant to be built within two months. Its chief operating officer of base metals, Roger Higgins, who is accompanying Premier Mike Rann during his weeklong tour of Chile, on 2 April 2007 said the system would be trialled for about 13 months. Pre-filtration equipment – which needs to be tested as it is the only component of any desalination plant that needs to be customised – will now be built by BHP on the Santos jetty at Port Bonython.
Will ease pressure off Murray: Premier Mike Rann said the plant – three times the size of the desalination plant he toured on 2 April 2007 – would help reduce the amount of water being taken from the ailing River Murray.
The Advertiser, 3/4/2007, p.6