Australia major directions

Reverse osmosis is now extensively used to reduce salt concentrations in brackish waters and to treat industrial waste water, for example, from pulp mills. Reverse osmosis has also proved economical (the cost can be as low as about 1 per 1000 liters) for large-scale desalination of seawater, a proposition of major interest in the Middle East, where almost all potable water is now obtained by various means from seawater or from brackish wells. Thus, at Ras Abu Janjur, Bahrain, a reverse osmosis plant converts brackish feedwater containing 19,000 ppm dissolved solids to potable water with 260 ppm dissolved solids at a rate of over 55,000 m3 per day, with an electricity consumption of 4.8 kilowatt hours per cubic meter of product. On a 1000-fold smaller scale, the resort community on Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, obtains most of its fresh water from seawater (36,000 ppm dissolved salts) directly by reverse osmosis, at a cost of about 10 per 1000 liters. 

Safety case regulation modelled on the Seveso directives has been developing in Australia in recent years. From about 1995 Australian offshore petroleum production has been subject to a safety case requirement, while on shore, a major federal government report in 1996 recommended that the Australian states should introduce safety case requirements for major hazard facilities (NOHSC, 1996). Little progress had been made in implementing this recommendation by the time of the accident at the Esso Longford gas plant in Victoria in 1998. A Royal Commission of inquiry into this accident recommended the implementation of a safety case regime for major hazard... 

Bulk concentrates contain both zinc and lead, typically in a ratio of about 2 1. Total metal content is usually 45-60 per cent (zinc plus lead), with at least 10 per cent of each, as well as copper, and other impurities. This material is generally treated at Imperial Smelting Furnace (ISF) plants, where both zinc and lead are directly recovered. Major sources of bulk concentrates include the Mount Isa mine in Australia, the Brunswick mine in Canada, and the Red Dog mine in the USA. These mines produce bulk material in addition to larger quantities of lead and zinc concentrates. However, some smaller mines (El Brocal in Peru, for instance) have bulk concentrates as their sole product, although this is unusual. 

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