Chilean authorities and miners see desal projects as key

Chile’s public works ministry and mining companies like Albemarle agree that desalination is key to solving water crises, especially in the northern regions.

Police recently evicted fishermen from an area in Valparaíso region where the US$1bn Aconcagua desalination plant is planned to be built. The fishermen claimed the plant would disturb the local ecosystem and impact their business. 

In response to a question from BNamericas at a conference hosted by the Council of the Americas, public works minister Jéssica López said the eviction was right and the protesters were wrong because all environmental and public participation requirements had been met. 

She added that project owner Aguas Pacífico followed the regulations on citizen participation and that the ministry assisted with community outreach. “No one believes that it is possible to carry out a project without intensive work with communities,” she said after her presentation.

López told journalists that regions in the center-north are especially vulnerable to water scarcity, so the ministry wants to swiftly award a desalination concession for Coquimbo region.

A tender should be launched by 2025, and operations start in 2028 or 2029. In the meantime, local water utility Aguas del Valle will be required to carry out additional works to ensure water supply, López said.

Mining companies have been the main booster of desalination in Chile. Albemarle and Cramsa signed a supply agreement last year, involving the latter’s US$5bn Aguas Marítimas plant, which is in the environmental evaluation phase. 

Albemarle’s external affairs vice president and Chile country manager, Ignacio Mehech, told BNamericas at the same event that desalination is a must.

“There’s no growth for Chile’s lithium industry without seawater,” he said, highlighting that the Aguas Marítimas plant will serve multiple clients and even domestic consumers.  

“That type of project, which is collaborative and multipurpose, is the one we believe must be developed. It can’t be that each company has a desalination plant, one next to the other,” he said.

When asked about conflict resolution plans, Mehech said the plant isn’t owned by Albemarle, but the miner has a community outreach policy. 

“We have a series of voluntary commitments such as socializing projects before submitting them for environmental evaluation, in order to adapt the projects to the community’s observations and concerns. That standard allows to eliminate conflicts later into the environmental evaluation process,” he said.