SA: Desal plant proposed to supply expanded Roxby Downs mine

AAP General News (Australia)
02-13-2006
SA: Desal plant proposed to supply expanded Roxby Downs mine

A $300 million desalination plant will be built in South Australia to supply seawater
to the soon-to-be expanded BHP Billiton uranium and copper mine at Roxby Downs.

The Australian newspaper reports the South Australian government is poised to back
construction of a desalination plant near Whyalla to supply the water needed to run the
proposed enlarged mine.

The paper says the plant will be based near Whyalla in the upper Spencer Gulf .. with
water supplied via a 330km pipeline to Olympic Dam.

The desalination option for Roxby Downs follows pressure from the Labor left and environmentalists
not to allow BHP Billiton to draw an extra 150 megalitres of water a day from the Great
Artesian Basin to supply its expanded mine.

The report comes just days after the New South Wales government scotched plans for
a desalination plant in Sydney after a public backlash.

AAP RTV dcr/psm/

KEYWORD: ROXBY (SYDNEY)

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