Water management com- pany Veolia Water Solutions & Technol-ogies South Africa is to supply a containerised water treatment plant – built into six 40-foot shipping containers – to the Kansanshi copper mine, near Solwezi, Zambia, next month.

As part of a new copper smelter project, the mine aims to increase its yearly output from 340 000 t to 400 000 t by 2015.

“As the world’s eighth-largest copper mine, the new Kansanshi smelter has specific require- ments for boiler feed, process and drinking water,” says Veolia Water Solutions Engineered Systems and Services division project engineer Nigel Bester.

He notes that the result is a flag- ship water treatment solution that upgrades river water to match each requirement exactly, with guaranteed availability because of a duty standby design on all process streams.

“Veolia will completely manufacture, test and certify the plants at its factory in Sebenza, Gauteng, before they are transported to site. The 40-foot containerised plants are designed to be linked up to one another on site and will operate as a single plant with multiple output streams to produce a combined 42.5 m3 of treated water per hour,” explains Bester.

He emphasises that the plant has been designed to ensure increased viability, so the company has taken a high-end engineering approach to match each treatment stage’s water with the mine’s requirements.

Subsequently, boiler feed water is not subjected to all the treatment steps necessary for drinking water, which is more viable than treating all the feed water to high-quality drinking standards, regardless of its application.

“After clarification, iron removal and sand filtration, the drinking water train consists of activated carbon filtration, polishing and, ultimately, ultraviolet disinfection. The boiler feed water will be subjected to the same initial processes, but will be diverted for carbon filtration and double-pass reverse osmosis, after which it will pass through the initial sand-filtration skids, polishing filter and continuous electrodeionisation,” he says, adding that the softened water for use in the smelter’s processes will be diverted from the demineralisation stream before the second pass reverse osmosis membranes.

Veolia’s position at the upper-end of the containerised plant market secured the contract, despite competition from international competitors, states Bester.

“We have an extensive footprint throughout Southern Africa, which means we can service our clients comprehensively. As part of the global Veolia, we further have access to some of the best technologies, which means that, overall, we can provide the entire fully engineered package that provides long-term benefits,” he concludes.