Mines facing water shortage

Moody’s Investors Service sent out a report this week revealing that the scarcity of water in South Africa, along with other countries, would be a major issue in the next 20 years as mining companies scramble to secure reliable sources for sustainability.

However, non-profit organisation Mining Dialogues 360° said the time frame was “quite generous” and issues may actually arise within the next decade.

Senior vice-president of Moody’s, Carol Cowan, expressed the service’s concerns that “in the next 20 years [South Africa and other countries] will be in the high to extremely high ratio of water withdrawals to supply, which will make it difficult for companies to secure reliable sources”.

She said although water remained a vital resource in the mining sector and mining companies had become more efficient at managing their water use through recycling, “water availability poses risks to the global mining industry”.

Cowan said securing enough water was fast becoming a challenge for miners as “mining companies need millions of gallons of water for processing ore, smelting and refining, dust suppression, as well as for their equipment and employees”.

“Many mines are located in countries where water is either scarce or competes with local population requirements, such as in Peru, Chile and parts of Africa, among others. This can make it costly to obtain the necessary water for operations, increase capital costs for new mine development, but also poses increasing availability challenges.”

Mining Dialogues 360° executive director Tracey Cooper said “20 years is a generous estimate”.

She said if the issues within the sector were not dealt with accordingly by the relevant parties, including organisations and companies, there was a high probability that the problem would escalate within the next decade.