Veolia Water Technologies will design and supply a sustainable water treatment plant that reduces chloride levels in the water stream at the Fosterville gold mine in Victoria, Australia.
The contract was awarded by Kirkland Lake Gold, which will own and operate the ‘reverse osmosis plant’ in order to meet its operations license conditions by reducing chloride levels to below 500 milligrams per litre for reuse within the plant’s operations.
“Leveraging our extensive experience in reverse osmosis technology for treating mine water, we are very proud to deliver this water treatment system to enable Kirkland Lake Gold to further enhance its sustainability credentials by producing a high quality treated water for reuse within the mine,” said Leno Cavarra, Veolia’s client executive manager for water technologies in Australia.
Fosterville, a Canada-based firm, produced around a quarter of a million ounces of gold for Kirkland Lake last year. It is planning to increase its output to more than 400,000 ounces over three years. The plant will have a maximum capacity of 2 million litres a day. It is expected to be operational in 2019.
“We see a clear path to reaching over 400,000oz per year from both Fosterville and Macassa. Fosterville is targeted to reach this level within three years as we achieve full production at the Swan Zone and commence production from additional mining fronts,” said Tony Makuch, president and chief executive Kirkland Lake Gold.
Kirkland Lake Gold last year received approval from the Australian Securities Exchange for a secondary listing on the exchange.
