Water Management in the Mining Industry

10:00 – 10:15 – Opening Remarks – Moderated by Manish Backliwal, Director – Global Sales and Business Development- Mining & Upstream O&G, Aquatech International LLC, Hartland, WI, USA

Bio: Manish, a Chemical Engineer have been involved in variety of roles ranging from Process Engineer to Project Management to now Sales and Business Development. Manish has over 20 years of experience in design and sales of Evaporators and Crystallizers in applications like Zero Liquid Discharge, Crystallization of Metal Salts and Concentration of brines. Since past 5 years, Manish has been leading the development of Mining Market for Aquatech globally. Manish has been involved in development new patented technology at Aquatech generating pure salts from different mixed salts and also purification of water from Coal Mining operation producing reclaimable salts for beneficial use.

10:05 am “Mine Water Management – risk, opportunity, and amnesia”

Presented by John McCartney, Chief Advisor Water Management, VP Latin America – Piteau Associates

Industry: Oil, Gas, Chemicals

Description: Mitigating water risks and capturing water efficiency opportunities is the foundation for building a robust mine water management plan. A properly implemented water management plan can ensure safe and profitable operations; a poorly managed version can lead to severe economic and environmental impacts.  Yet many water professionals don’t properly understand how water risks are determined at a mine site and why we see certain failures of mine water management systems. In this talk we will discuss water risks at a broad level before drilling down to what mining companies can do at a local level to responsibly manage water.

Bio: John McCartney is a technical expert in mine water management with 30 years of international experience.  He has worked in mine operations, at a corporate level, and as a consultant. John has extensive experience in water supply development, mine dewatering, water management planning, environmental management, mine closure, water stewardship, and water disclosure. His experience includes all levels of engineering study and mine life cycle stages. His current area of focus is on water in the context of risk, sustainability, and as a value enabler for the mining industry.

10:20 am “Water as a key enabler for the mining industry’s push towards sustainability”

Presented by Raymond Philippe, Principal Consultant – Sustainable Mine Water Management, Netherlands(TBC)

Industry: Oil, Gas, Chemicals

Description: Historically, water was viewed simply as a mine’s cost input, without ever being considered an operational bottleneck. Nowadays, water has transformed from being a mere operational cost item to a key financial, reputational, and business value conditioner. Water related risk has become business risk. This is a direct threat for the mining industry and its stakeholders, but it also offers opportunity. The future of the mining industry will depend on the sector’s ability to adapt to the changing world, extending beyond the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals into carbon neutrality and water impact neutrality on major value chains. This presentation will address the changing landscape for water in the mining industry, from a technical, sustainability and finance perspective, and will identify several of the specific threads and opportunities that are specifically associated to water management and infrastructure in the mining industry.

Bio: Raymond Philippe is a Dutch Mining and Metallurgical engineer with postgraduate environmental engineering studies, with well over 20 years of international experience in project development, design and engineering, business development, and technologies for water management in the mining industry. Raymond is a seasoned water and mining professional, former director of water at globally operating Consulting and engineering firms, has specialized in technical, commercial and sustainability aspects of Water in Mining Industry. Technical Coordinator of both the 2014 and 2016 Desal Latin American Congresses on Desalination and Water Reuse Currently, Raymond is Principal Consultant at Sustainable Mine Water Management, a boutique consulting firm specialized in technical, commercial and sustainability services, operating in the Mining, Water, Sustainability and Finance sectors.

10:35 am “Water treatment in metallurgy and mining”

Presented by Jacob Croall, Director of Global Water Management and Treatment, Newmont Goldcorp Corporation

Industry: Oil, Gas, Chemicals

Description: Understanding, managing, and mitigating water related risks has become more important for businesses as industry prepares for a world defined by changing precipitation patterns.  Strategy development, ongoing research and development, governance and the industry’s current vs future state will be analyzed with respect to managing water risks for both operating assets and assets at closure. This presentation outlines the drivers and scale of water related risks, with examples and case studies, and discusses the approach to enable targeted application of management practices and treatment technologies to reliably reduce costs and uncertainties.

Bio: Jacob Croall is the Director of Global Water Management and Treatment at Newmont Goldcorp Corporation, with 14 years of experience in water management and metallurgy in the mining industry. In his current role, Jacob provides leadership and subject matter expertise to support water stewardship and R&D for the world’s largest gold mining company. He supports merger and acquisition due diligence for environmental technical risk and corporate strategy, linking this to operational water management challenges across all of Newmont’s operating regions. He seeks to develop a world leading cross functional water management network within Newmont and generate accretive value from sustainability focused decision making. In his free time, Jacob spends time with his ’63 Chevy Bel Air, is a vinyl record collector, and previously spent 5 weeks living in Antarctica.

10:50- 11:20 am –          Q & A