The water you need is already locked in your tailings. Get it back.
Every tonne of tailings traps process water you paid to pump — water you replace by drawing ever more from rivers, wells and aquifers your community shares. Desalus funds, builds, owns and operates the treatment, reclaims the trapped water at 99%+ recovery and returns it clean to the plant — you simply buy back that water at an attractive rate per thousand gallons, with zero brine and zero disposal liability. Freshwater draw drops, dam levels fall, and the recovered salts and metals become farm-grade fertilizer Desalus markets. Real water security, zero capital.
You buy water twice — and only get to use it once.
Process water carries your ore through the plant, then disappears into the tailings storage facility, bound up in pore space and slimes where you can never fully reclaim it. So you pay again: more pumping from rivers, boreholes and aquifers, more makeup water, more pressure on a basin your neighbours and regulators are watching closely. Thickeners and decant claw back a fraction — the rest is simply lost.
- Water you already paid for, gone — trapped in tailings pore water and lost to seepage and evaporation, never returned to the circuit.
- Rising makeup demand, in the wrong places — many operations sit in water-scarce, drought-exposed regions where every extra cubic metre is contested.
- Licence-to-operate at stake — communities and regulators increasingly judge mines on freshwater draw, while a brimming TSF adds dam-safety risk on top.
Why your raw-water draw keeps climbing
Conventional thickening leaves most tailings water behind. Desalus reclaims it and sends it back — flattening the draw curve.
Stop replacing water you could reclaim.
Desalus is a full water-treatment service built for the salt and metal load of tailings water — recovering nearly all of it as clean water for the plant and converting the rest into product instead of pumping more from the basin.
99%+ reclaimed, zero brine
Recover almost all of the tailings water as clean water for reuse and eliminate the reject stream entirely. No brine pond, no liners, no new waste to manage.
Cut freshwater draw
Returning reclaimed water to the circuit shrinks the raw and makeup water you pull from rivers, wells and aquifers — directly reducing the demand you place on a shared basin.
Water security & licence to operate
A reliable internal water source buffers drought and tightening allocations — and a smaller freshwater footprint is the number communities and regulators care about most.
Lower water cost, zero capital
No capital outlay and no operating burden — Desalus funds, builds and runs it all. You pay only for the reclaimed water delivered, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons that beats your current all-in cost, while the recovered salts and metals become farm-grade fertilizer Desalus sells.
Lower dam levels, lower risk
Pulling water out for reuse draws down the pond on your tailings storage facility — reducing stored water, seepage and dam-safety exposure as a built-in bonus.
Service, not just steel
Desalus delivers reclamation as an engineered, operated service tuned to your tailings chemistry and flow — not a box you have to run yourself.
Right in the band where tailings water sits
From dilute decant return to concentrated, recycled process water, Desalus is designed for 5,000–50,000 mg/L total dissolved solids — exactly the salinity tailings water reaches as it cycles and concentrates inside the circuit.
The highlighted band is the Desalus sweet spot — where recycled tailings water defeats conventional reuse today.
Desalus vs. thickening & decant vs. drawing more raw water
The same tailings water, three very different outcomes for your water balance.
| Outcome | Desalus | Thicken & decant | Pump more raw water |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tailings water reclaimed | 99%+ | Partial — pore water lost | None — buys new water |
| Freshwater & makeup draw | Cut sharply | Still high | Highest — keeps rising |
| Water security in drought | Buffered | Exposed | Exposed |
| Dam water & safety | Drawn down | Pond stays full | No effect |
| Capital you outlay | None — Desalus owns & operates | You fund & build | You fund & pump |
| What you pay for | Clean water, per 1,000 gal | Pumping + lost water | More raw water, forever |
| Your all-in water cost | Lowest & predictable | High | Highest |
From water-balance report to reclaimed supply in four steps.
It starts with your chemistry and your water balance. Send Desalus a full-panel quality and volume report for your tailings and process water, and you'll get a site-specific model of exactly how much water you can reclaim, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons, and the freshwater draw and costs you'll shed.
Start with your water reportShare your full-panel report
Send tailings and process-water chemistry — TDS, salts, metals — plus flows and your water balance through the Desalus contact form. The richer the panel, the sharper the model.
Get a site-specific model
Desalus quantifies reclaimed water, reduced freshwater draw, dam-water drawdown, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons, and the capital and disposal costs you avoid for your exact tailings stream.
Desalus builds & operates it
Desalus capitalizes, installs and runs the KNeW Process, Zix-Zak ion exchange and No-Briner systems around your site's flow and tailings chemistry — no capex or operating burden for you.
Buy back clean water, cut draw, waste-free
Reclaimed water goes back to the plant at your agreed rate per thousand gallons, freshwater draw falls and the dam draws down. Brine never exists, and the recovered salts and metals become fertilizer Desalus markets — which is how your water price stays low.
Reclaim the water. Secure the supply. Lower the dam.
The award-winning systems behind the Desalus service turn the water trapped in your tailings into your most dependable source — and the salts into product.
What water-supply managers ask first
How much tailings water can Desalus actually reclaim?
Desalus is built to recover 99%+ of the water in your tailings and process streams as clean water you can return straight to the plant. It handles the salt and metal load of recycled tailings water in the 5,000–50,000 mg/L TDS range — the band where conventional reuse and RO stall — so the water comes back instead of being replaced by fresh draw.
Will this really reduce my freshwater and makeup-water draw?
Yes — that's the point. Every cubic metre reclaimed and sent back to the circuit is a cubic metre you don't pump from rivers, boreholes or aquifers. In water-scarce or drought-exposed operations, that directly improves water security and shrinks the freshwater footprint communities and regulators scrutinise.
Does pulling water out help with tailings dam safety?
It does, as a built-in bonus. Drawing water off the tailings storage facility for reuse lowers the stored pond volume, reducing seepage and dam-safety exposure. Your primary win is reclaimed water and lower draw — a lower, safer dam comes with it.
What happens to the salts and metals left behind?
They become product, not waste. Once the water is recovered, the dissolved load is converted into farm-grade fertilizer that Desalus refines and sells. There's no brine to dispose of and no new pond to build — true zero-liquid-discharge. The fertilizer revenue is Desalus', and it's part of how Desalus keeps your reclaimed-water rate low.
How does the Desalus model work — what do I actually pay?
Desalus capitalizes, builds, owns, operates and maintains the reclamation facility. You don't buy equipment or run anything — you simply purchase the clean water Desalus reclaims from your tailings, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons. Because Desalus recovers and sells the resulting fertilizer, we can price your water below your current pump-and-replace economics while leaving zero waste. The fertilizer revenue is Desalus'; your benefit is cheaper water, lower freshwater draw and no capital or disposal liability.
See how much water you can reclaim from your tailings.
Send Desalus a full-panel quality and volume report for your tailings and process water and get site-specific insight into the reclaimed water, reduced freshwater draw, dam drawdown — and the attractive clean-water rate — waiting in the water you already pump.
No obligation. The report drives a site-specific model of reclaimed water, draw reduction, your water rate per thousand gallons, and the costs you avoid.
- Quantified water reclaimed for your exact tailings chemistry
- Projected reduction in freshwater and makeup-water draw
- Your attractive clean-water rate per thousand gallons
- Dam-water drawdown and zero-discharge reuse
- Zero capital outlay — Desalus funds, builds & operates it all