The annual water-treatment market for hard-rock mining is forecast to grow 85 per cent to $17 billion by 2019 to meet the demands of gold, iron, copper and nickel explorers, Bluefield Research said.
Heightened competition in a fragmented sector has water providers and treatment specialists including GE Water, Suez Environnement, Veolia Environnement SA and Pentair Plc jockeying for market share, Boston-based Bluefield said in a report.
Stricter regulations on water usage worldwide will expand opportunities for such companies as Doosan and Acciona SA to supply mines with desalinated water.
About $15 billion of large-scale desalination plants and supply pipelines dedicated to mining are now in development, Bluefield analyst Erin Bonney Casey said in the report.
Almost half of the planned hard-rock investments are in areas with medium to high water stress.
