Fortescue’s water abstraction limit more than doubles for Christmas Creek mine and green iron plant

WA’s budding zero-emissions iron industry will drain vast amounts of water if Fortescue drawing upon an extra 60 Optus Stadiums’ worth of groundwater a year is anything to go by. The iron ore miner has been given the green light by WA’s Department of Water and Environmental Regulation to boost its annual groundwater abstraction limit at the Christmas Creek project in the Pilbara from 50 to 110 gigalitres. Christmas Creek is the site of a massive iron ore mining operation and an adjacent $US50 million ($75m) pilot plant that will transform the mined ore into iron using machinery powered by renewable energy — with the end product dubbed green iron. That iron will then be used to make steel. “The updated operating licence reflects a more accurate understanding of the pilot plant’s expected water needs as engineering design has matured and the project progresses through construction,” a Fortescue spokeswoman told The West Australian. “The revised figures incorporate assumptions for continuous, 24/7 operation and account for the broader planning of the green iron precinct, which has evolved since the project’s early concept phase. “All changes were assessed and approved by DWER in accordance with its standard environmental regulatory framework.” An additional 60 gigalitres of water a year is enough to fill about 24,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or Optus Stadium 60 times over. The additional abstraction will be re-injected into a local aquifer after its use. Fortescue has agreed to increase its testing of the aquifer to ensure the water quality is not severely degraded due to the re-injection. The bulk of Fortescue’s additional water use will be for processing the ore before it gets to the green iron pilot plant. The pilot plant itself is expected to only directly use 0.146 megalitres of water. Fortescue has pioneered the State’s push into producing green iron via the Christmas Creek pilot plant. The plant is scheduled for commissioning next year and slated to churn out at least 1500 tonnes of iron annually. Fortescue’s main Pilbara iron ore rivals — Rio Tinto and BHP — have their own green iron production aspirations, mainly via the NeoSmelt facility in Kwinana. Premier Roger Cook is increasingly eager for WA’s miners to produce green iron so the State can “add value to its raw iron ore exports” while becoming a “renewable energy powerhouse”. The prospect of a green iron boom looks set to put more pressure on WA’s groundwater reserves and comes just six months after the Auditor-General released a scathing report into DWER’s policing of industrial water usage. It found that the 12,000 water licences handed out by DWER, which in total allowed the extraction of 4 trillion litres of water a year, were not being monitored effectively. WA is heavily reliant on groundwater, with about 78 per cent of all potable water across the State drawn from underground aquifers. Miners consume the lion’s share, responsible for about 45 per cent of all licensed water use. Geohydrologists are concerned that less rainfall in the Pilbara over the past 15 years, combined with the increased draw from miners, is making it harder for aquifers in the region to recharge.