Anglo American: projects target freshwater reductions

Two Anglo American sustainability projects are returning 2,200 million litres of freshwater a year to the Fitzroy Basin for the benefit of the community and environment.

Anglo American embarked on a plan to reduce its water footprint globally, setting ambitious targets to increase re-use and recycling of water to 85% of total use and cut its freshwater use by 50% by 2030. Playing its part in this global plan, Anglo American’s five steelmaking coal operations in Central Queensland, both underground and open cut mines, have invested in a series of major projects that aim to deliver on these targets.

A reverse osmosis plant (ROP) has been commissioned for the Capcoal operations at Middlemount to replace freshwater imports with recycled mine water, saving 1,200 million litres per year of freshwater. In May 2024, a new mine water supply control system on the Dawson River, which supplies freshwater to the Dawson Mine and the community around Moura, will act to reduce freshwater imports into the Dawson Mine itself by 90%, saving up to 1,000 million litres per year.

These two projects alone will save the freshwater equivalent of nearly 24 hours of flow in the Fitzroy River, the largest river system draining Australia’s east coast and the largest flowing into the Great Barrier Reef.

Anglo American water specialists Tim Kendrick and Hugo Marais believe projects like these are a hallmark of Anglo American and, by extension, the wider mining industry’s commitment to improving water stewardship across the regions of operation. Specifically, these freshwater volumes will now remain within the Dawson and Nogoa riverine systems in the Fitzroy Basin to the benefit of communities, ecosystem values, culture, heritage and local economies. Inside the mine gate, the benefits of increasing reuse and recycling include improved operational water security and better mine closure outcomes. This is all aligned with Anglo American’s objective of re-imagining mining to improve people’s lives.

Central Queensland is a region subject to prolonged periods of low rainfall which creates an opportunity for traditionally large water consumers to leverage readily available technologies and systems to reduce freshwater demands on the Fitzroy Basin’s riverine systems and pivot to using the extensive water inventories locally available at mining complexes across the region.

Read more about Anglo American’s Sustainable Mining Plan on the Anglo American website: www.angloamerican.com