In January 2019, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that the Comision Chilena del Cobre had issued a report on copper mining water demand in December 2018. It projected that the sector's seawater use would rise 230 per cent by 2029, against only 12 per cent for other water sources. Drivers were higher output and more sulphide ores needing water-intensive processing. Most new mines and expansions planned to use seawater either raw or desalinated. Mining used about three per cent of Chile's water but operated mostly in arid regions.
The report showed that seawater and desalination were becoming the norm for new copper projects in Chile and that the industry could expect sharply rising demand from mining.