Argyle diamond mine now self-sufficient in water

The Argyle diamond mine near Kununurra, Western Australia, has cut its reliance on nearby Lake Argyle, and for the past eight months has been completely self-sufficient in water.

It's a major step, considering that back in 2005, the mine used more than 3,500 million litres of Argyle water.

The mine's health, safety and environment manager, Peter Firth, says a bad Wet season could see the mine resorting back to Lake Argyle, but new alternatives are making a huge difference.

"The biggest user of water is our processing plant, where water is used to wash the product, through the diamond separation process," he says.

"A lot of that water was being discharged to the environment, but we are now capturing that water and recycling it through the processing plant.
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