Background
- The annual rainfall in Quillota has decreased by 66% in the last 3 years with respect to the historical average.
- More than 14 thousand people from El Soldado neighboring communities were affected by potable water supply disruptions.
- The above mentioned led to protests by the community jeopardizing the water supply to the El Soldado operations.
Challenge
Water scarcity demanded that El Soldado Operation rethink the way they managed this scarce resource, looking for different options for the efficient use of water.
The challenge consisted in finding solutions that could allow, both to secure the water supply to the inhabitants of the neighboring communities and avail the sufficient water resource for the mining process.
Specifically, the operation had to be capable for:
- Providing accurate, real time information to support the improvement of water management in the operation.
- Detecting improvement opportunities regarding hydric efficiency.
- Knowing the pattern of water usage of the neighboring communities and the operational status of their water sources.
solution
A technological monitoring and automation system was implemented, adapted to the reality of the territory, which allows for traceability of the water for El Soldado and its neighboring communities.
This enabled the measurement of the water usage within the operation, monitoring in real time a total of 47 km of pipelines, representing more than 85% of the water lines within the water network of the operation. It extends from the 13 groundwater extraction points to the usage points corresponding to the concentrate Plant and to the Mine. Similarly, the flows to the communities, the internal consumption and the pipes for the water trucks are monitored.
Solution Specifications
- Web based monitoring platform.
- Easy access and usability
- Visualization adapted for computers and mobile devices for field work.
- It allows operators and supervisors from different areas of the operation to understand the water management system at all times and remotely.
Impact
The collaborative work carried out with We Techs allowed El Soldado to do the following:
1 Generate on-line data about the handling and use of every liter per second used from their wells and generate the water usage traceability and reporting.
2 Identify inefficiencies in the water network, providing data to aid the decision-making process to support a more efficient use of the resource.
3 Understand the water usage within the operation, thereby identifying improvement opportunities and evaluating their results in real time.
4 Improve supply continuity to the neighboring communities from 25% to 99% between March 2020 and March 2021, reducing supply cuts from 90 in a week to zero.
5 Forecast the future performance of water sources and model potential water shortages in the territory with up to six months in advance.
6 Reverse the negative perception of the community toward the Company in terms of water management in the territory, becoming a partner in search of solutions for the neighboring communities.