Investment consortium Caitan SpA, formed from the Cobra Group’s Técnicas de Desalación de Aguas, S.A. (Tedagua) and Japanese company MITSUI & Co. Ltd, both multinationals, has awarded Applus+ a contract for the factory inspection, quality assurance and quality control during construction and quality auditing of a sea-water desalination plant supplying water to Chile’s Spence mine.
The project will be based in the surroundings of Mejillones, in northern Chile’s Antofagasta region, and will take place in two stages. In the first stage, lasting 30 months, is the engineering, purchasing, construction and launch (EPC) phase. Then comes the operations and maintenance (O&M) phase, which will run for 20 years, extendable by a further five.
The project entails the design, construction and launch of a marine structure made up of a sea-water harvesting system plus intake and outlet pipes, including works on the seabed. It also involves the creation of a sea-water desalination plant with a daily production capacity of 86,400 m³, drawing on reverse osmosis (RO) techniques, as well as an aerial 66 kV electricity cable, some 75 kilometres in length.
Furthermore, the project comprises work on a 154-kilometre length of pipeline, formed of 36 inch (900 mm)-diameter steel pipes and three pump stations to pump the desalinated water to the Spence mine, involving elevation gains of over 2,000 metres.
With this new contract, Applus+ strengthens its position as a provider of services to Chile’s
mining industry.