In a water-scarce district, every drop counts.
Copper runs on water — heap-leach, SX-EW, dust suppression — yet acidic contact water and salt-laden seepage at 5,000 to 50,000 mg/L TDS usually end up in a lined pond you can't reuse and can't discharge. Desalus funds, builds, owns and operates the treatment — you simply buy back reusable process water at an attractive rate per thousand gallons, with zero brine and zero capital outlay, where every drop counts.
In the desert, water is your license — and your scarcest reagent.
Copper districts sit where rainfall is lowest and water rights are hardest won. Acidic contact water and salt-laden seepage accumulate faster than you can use them, but their TDS makes them unfit to recirculate into the leach or feed the plant — so they sit in ponds, evaporating value you paid for.
- Make-up water is expensive and contested, yet usable water evaporates from ponds while you buy more from the aquifer.
- Salt accumulation in recirculated raffinate-adjacent streams degrades leach and SX performance the longer water cycles.
- Lined ponds are growing liabilities — capital, seepage monitoring, closure obligations and community scrutiny in a water-stressed basin.
Water you buy vs. water you waste
The drier the basin, the more it costs to buy water while your own evaporates. Desalus closes the loop.
The better answer to scarcity is recovery, not more pumping.
Desalus is a full water-treatment service built for acidic, salt-laden copper contact water — Desalus funds, builds and runs it, recovering nearly all of it as reusable process water and leaving nothing to pond.
99%+ recovery, zero brine
Recover almost every drop as reusable water and eliminate the reject stream. No lined ponds, no seepage liability, no hauling.
Cut make-up water demand
Every recovered cubic meter offsets water you'd otherwise buy or pump — directly easing pressure on rights and the aquifer.
Reuse value, zero capital
No capital outlay and no operating burden. Desalus funds, builds and runs everything — you pay only for reclaimed water, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons that beats buying or pumping make-up. The salts Desalus recovers become farm-grade fertilizer Desalus sells, which keeps your water price low.
De-risked, ZLD compliance
No brine and no growing pond means no seepage permit overhang — zero-liquid-discharge operation regulators and neighbors welcome.
Strengthen the social license
Returning water to the basin and fertilizer to local agriculture turns a scarcity conflict into a community partnership.
Service, not just steel
Desalus delivers treatment as a service — engineered, operated and optimized around your specific contact-water chemistry and flows.
Right in the band where reuse normally fails
From mildly saline groundwater make-up to concentrated, salt-cycled contact water, Desalus is designed for 5,000–50,000 mg/L total dissolved solids — the range where recirculation poisons your circuit.
The highlighted band is the Desalus sweet spot — exactly where arid copper operations are stranded today.
Desalus vs. how contact water is handled today
The same pond, three very different outcomes.
| Outcome | Desalus | Lined evaporation ponds | Conventional RO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water recovered for reuse | 99%+ | None — lost to air | Stalls as salts climb |
| Brine / reject stream | None | Permanent pond | Yes — must be managed |
| Make-up water demand | Sharply cut | Unchanged — keep buying | Reduced partially |
| Capital you outlay | None — Desalus owns & operates | You fund & build | You fund & build |
| What you pay for | Reclaimed water, per 1,000 gal | Pond build + make-up water | Power + brine disposal |
| Seepage / closure risk | Low — ZLD | High & growing | Rising |
| Your all-in water cost | Lowest & predictable | Highest | High |
From water report to reclaimed water in four steps.
It starts with your numbers. Send Desalus a full-panel water quality and volume report — TDS, chlorides, sulfate, metals and flow — and you'll get site-specific insight into your reclaimed-water rate and the make-up water you'll stop buying.
Start with your water reportShare your full-panel report
Send contact-water quality and volume data through the Desalus contact form — TDS, chlorides, sulfate, metals and flow. The richer the panel, the sharper the model.
Get a site-specific model
Desalus quantifies reusable-water recovery, your reclaimed-water rate per thousand gallons, and the make-up water and pond capital you avoid for your exact streams.
Desalus builds & operates it
Desalus capitalizes, installs and runs the KNeW Process, Zix-Zak ion exchange and No-Briner systems around your site — no capex or operating burden for you.
Buy back reclaimed water, waste-free
You purchase reusable water at your agreed rate per thousand gallons and return it to the circuit. Brine and ponds never exist, and the recovered salts become fertilizer Desalus markets — which is how your water price stays low.
Raise profit. Eliminate waste. Flourish community.
The award-winning systems behind the Desalus service turn your scarcest resource into your most reliable one.
What copper-mine water managers ask first
Can the recovered water actually go back into my circuit?
Yes — that's the goal. Desalus recovers 99%+ of acidic, salt-laden contact water as clean, low-TDS water you can recirculate into leach make-up, the plant, or dust suppression, instead of buying fresh water or losing it to a pond. The salt that used to accumulate is removed, not cycled back.
How does the Desalus model work — what do I actually pay?
Desalus capitalizes, builds, owns, operates and maintains the facility. You don't buy equipment or run anything — you simply purchase the reclaimed water Desalus produces, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons. Because Desalus recovers and sells the resulting farm-grade fertilizer, we can price your water below buying or pumping make-up while leaving zero waste. The fertilizer revenue is Desalus'; your benefit is affordable reclaimed water, zero capital and no seepage liability.
What about the chlorides and salts that foul SX-EW?
They're recovered as farm-grade fertilizer rather than concentrated back into your raffinate or stranded in a pond. Removing them from the loop protects circuit performance while creating a saleable product — and there is no brine, true zero-liquid-discharge.
We're in a severely water-stressed basin. Does this help our social license?
Directly. Cutting make-up water demand and returning water to the basin, plus supplying local fertilizer, turns a scarcity conflict into a community benefit — strengthening the license to operate that copper projects increasingly depend on.
What do I need to get started?
A full-panel water analysis — TDS, chlorides, sulfate, metals — and your volumes across the streams you'd like to reclaim. Submit them through the contact form on desalus.com and the Desalus team will return site-specific insights.
See exactly how much water you can reclaim.
Send Desalus a full-panel water quality and volume report and get site-specific insight into the reusable water — and the make-up water savings — waiting in the contact water you already manage.
No obligation. The report drives a site-specific model of recovery, your reclaimed-water rate per thousand gallons, and the make-up water and capital you avoid.
- Quantified reusable-water recovery for your exact TDS and chlorides
- Make-up water demand you can avoid buying or pumping
- Your attractive reclaimed-water rate per thousand gallons
- Zero capital outlay — Desalus funds, builds & operates it all