In January 2017, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that Chile's state copper company Codelco had asked companies to register interest in building a desalination plant in the Antofagasta region. A partner was to build, own, operate and later transfer it (BOOT). The plan specified 54,000 m³/day (630 litres per second), expandable to 145,000 m³/day. The 1.2 billion US dollar scheme covered marine works, 160 km of pipeline, pumps and power infrastructure. Water was to go to the Gabriela Mistral, Ministro Hales, Radomiro Tomic and Chuquicamata mines.
The report showed that Chilean copper mining increasingly wanted to meet its water needs from the sea. Such a plant also required long pipelines and pumping stations up to the mines.