Doosan Enpure secures Escondida pretreatment contract

Doosan Enpure has secured a US$ 17 million contract to design, procure and supply the pretreatment plant for the desalination part of the Escondida Water Supply Project at the world’s largest copper mine in Chile’s Atacama desert.

From its Birmingham, UK, office Doosan Enpure will design, supply and install a 446,000 m³/d pretreatment plant, comprising sixty 12.5 x 4 m rubber-lined pressure dual-media filters, complete with automated media-reloading system and scouring air-blowers.

Avtar Jirh, managing director of Doosan Enpure said, “To secure this contract in only our first year shows that clients understand how our expertise in filtration can provide solutions to a wide range of industrial applications”.

The Escondida seawater desalination plant, which is being built by Doosan Heavy Industries for main contractor Bechtel, will have a combined daily output of about 220,000 m³/d, making it the largest reverse-osmosis project to be constructed in the Latin American region.

The US$ 103 million project is part of an overall US$ 3.4 billion expansion of the mine, which contributes 4% of the country’s GDP.