Water as valuable as gold in Western Australia's historic Goldfields as researchers try to find alternate sources for the state's booming mining sector.
The historic mining city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder sits in a resource-rich part of Western Australia's Goldfields, where water is seemingly as valuable as gold.Mining companies operating in WA's Goldfields rely on water pumped from underground bores, which typically contain more than 200 grams of salt per litre – about six times saltier than seawater.
"When we're talking about critical metals, those processes require clean water, not just the hypersaline groundwater that's sitting under the town." During the 2021-22 financial year, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder received 2,306 megalitres of wastewater at its South Boulder treatment plant, and 1,380 megalitres of purified effluent was recycled."You can only treat as much grey water as the town produces, so if the town doesn't grow, then your supply into treatment is limited," Professor Dyer said.Figures for the 2022-23 financial year reveal the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder sold $3.
"In a country like Australia, where water is at a premium, using grey water is excellent and we re-use it about six times through the process before it ends up in one of our tailings facilities."The council previously supplied water to Kalgoorlie's Super Pit gold mine, but a pipeline was ripped up several years ago.
"The January 2023 budget update shows City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder's water services making a profit in every year out to 2039-40 with the exception of 2024-25," the audit said.
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