Veolia Water Technologies, which has a 30-year contract to manage and maintain Papakura’s (Auckland) water supply – a contract when first won that was the only private sector water concession contract in the country – has been contracted to design and supply a Reverse Osmosis plant to reduce the chloride levels in the produced water stream at the Fosterville Gold Mine. The water treatment plant solution will allow Kirkland Lake Gold to continue meeting their operations license conditions in a sustainable way.

Kirkland Lake Gold is a mid-tier gold producer targeting 580,000 – 595,000 ounces of gold production in 2017 from mines in Canada and Australia. In Australia, Kirkland Lake Gold owns and operates the Fosterville Mine, which is a high-grade, low-cost underground gold mine, located 20 km from the local city of Bendigo. The Fosterville Mine features extensive exploration potential and low-cost production. The mine is currently experiencing a significant increase in gold production due to recent exploration.

Fosterville Gold Mine plans to implement a water treatment plant to treat mine water for reuse within their process water circuit and Veolia’s task is for its Reverse Osmosis plant to reduce the chloride levels < 500 mg/L. The plant will consist of multimedia and carbon filtration followed by primary Reverse Osmosis and reject recovery Reverse Osmosis. It has the capacity to treat 2 MLD and will allow the Fosterville Gold Mine to continue meeting their operating license conditions in a sustainable way. It is planned to be operational in 2019.