Brine, Pond and Tailings Water Solutions

Sedgman helps clients define practical solutions for brine recovery, solution mining, pond systems, tailings management, water recovery and effluent treatment. We combine modelling, pilot programs and process engineering to help clients understand how water, brine, salts, tailings and treatment requirements interact before they become critical design, operating or environmental constraints. 

Brine, pond and tailings water systems sit at the point where resource recovery, process chemistry, water balance and environmental performance meet. Sedgman helps clients make sense of these interconnected systems early, using modelling, pilot programs and practical engineering insight to define how process streams should be recovered, concentrated, treated, recycled or managed across the process pathway.

Our capability integrates solution mining and brine recovery modelling, evaporation and crystallisation pond assessments, pilot pond programs, tailings water recovery, and effluent treatment strategy development. This enables project teams to validate hydrological, chemical and process assumptions, understand system sensitivities and build stronger robust inputs for studies, design, approvals and operational strategies.

Sedgman supports clients in turning complex brine and water challenges into practical engineered solutions. We focus on improving recovery potential, reducing uncertainty, strengthening sustainability outcomes and providing a more reliable foundation for downstream engineering and long-term performance.

Outcomes We Focus On 

  • Clearer recovery strategies for brine, salts and process water streams.
  • More reliable pond, brine and water balance inputs for studies and engineering.
  • Improved understanding of evaporation, crystallisation, deposition, entrainment and recycle stream behaviour.
  • Practical tailings water and effluent treatment strategies that support responsible resource development.
  • Reduced uncertainty around operating envelopes, system sensitivities and environmental constraints.
  • Better alignment between process development, water stewardship, project approvals and long-term asset performance. 

What We Deliver

We help clients evaluate and model solution mining and brine recovery systems to better understand extraction behaviour, recovery potential and the constraints that influence commercial processing solutions. This includes considering brine composition, recovery method, process balance, recycle streams and the interfaces between resource recovery, processing and downstream treatment.  

We develop and interpret pond models for evaporation, crystallisation, brine concentration and recovery applications. Our work considers climatic and environmental drivers, brine composition, evaporation and rainfall, seasonality, deposition behaviour, brine entrainment, pond area requirements, buffer capacity and operating strategies that influence system performance. 

Where additional validation is required, we support pilot programs that help confirm pond performance, brine concentration behaviour and intermediate product recovery assumptions. Pilot insights improve confidence in process conditions, support model refinement and provide more reliable data for project definition, scale-up and commercial design. 

We assess tailings water and process water requirements so recovery, treatment, reuse and dewatering considerations, as well as environmental and closure objectives, are built into the processing pathway from early project definition. Sedgman has experience designing and delivering tailings dewatering solutions across varied tailings compositions and operating contexts, including large plate-and-frame pressure filters, belt filters, vacuum filtration, and dry stack tailings systems.  

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