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Water is an important component in the mining industry.With mines often located in remote and dry areas a sustainable supply of water is crucial.The development of seawater desalination,reduced membrane costs and reduced energy consumption have made seawater a viable source of water supply for mining.Reliability of the desalination plant,quality of the water and the availability of sufficient water supplies are the most important requirements from the mining industry.Therefore best available and proven technologies should be used.Key for successfully operating seawater desalination based on reverse osmosis membranes (SWRO) is the pretreatment.Often dissolved air flotation (DAF) and/or dual media filters (DMF) are used giving most of the time adequate protection of the SWRO.The waters at the Chilean coast although are rich in nutrients,bacteria,algae,plankton and macro-organisms and face from time to time "red tides" an rapid increase or accumulation of algae.To maintain the SWRO feed water quality within specifications at all times,experienced and skilled operators are needed.Despite the awareness,many desalination plants with "conventional" pretreatment still suffer from SWRO downtime or increased operational costs due to infrequent off spec circumstances.Numerous tests around the world have proven that ultrafiltration (UF) provides optimum pre-treatment for SWRO.UF will remove all suspended solids and provides a substantial reduction in microbiological activity.Plugging of SWRO spacers is completely eliminated and the SWRO cleaning frequency c(a)n be substantially reduced.