The Management Board of KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. ("Company") announces that on 19 June 2023 it adopted a resolution regarding the development of a feasibility study on the construction of a plant to produce evaporated salt from the salty mine water pumped from the mines using evaporation technology („evaporated salt plant”).
The basic assumption of the project is the selective management of mine water, aimed at concentrating the flow of water with a higher salt content to the region where the main dewatering pumping takes place, from whence it will be possible to direct it for further processing. The utilisation of technological steam, available from existing technological processes, will enable the desalination of water flows and the production of commercial salt products (evaporated salt) in amounts of up to 1 million tonnes annually. These actions, apart from their measurable economic effects, will enable a reduction of the total amount of salt deposited in conjunction with water from dewatering the rock mass by approx. 50%, at the same time substantially reducing the Company’s environmental impact and contributing to the protection of the Odra river’s ecosystem.
Estimated capital expenditures, based on preliminary calculations and recent analogous investments, could reach up to PLN 1 billion. The planned investment period, taking into account the preparatory phase, according to preliminary estimates, may amount to 6 years.
In accordance with the circular economy principles, the goal of the preparatory phase is to maximally restrict the generation of tailings through their utilisation, amongst others, to meet agricultural needs. An additional expected use of the water arising from the desalination process is in the cooling installations of the metallurgical plants, which will enable the efficient utilisation of resources and the optimisation of costs.
The nearest actions planned to take place in 2023 will be aimed at a detailed analysis of investment expenditures and operating costs and the conduct of production trials of the aforementioned desalination processes, including the management of tailings and the development of a detailed timeline for these investment activities. Once these tasks are accomplished, a decision will be made as regards the selection of technology and the scale of the investment.
Legal basis: Art. 17 (1) of MAR (Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse (market abuse regulation) and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC (Official Journal of the European Union dated 12 June 2014, no. L 173/1).