
About
The Cape Preston desalination plant is the world’s first large-scale desalination plant that was pre-assembled elsewhere due to the remoteness of the location.
It provides desalinated water to CITIC Pacific Mining’s Sino Iron project.
- Capacity: 140,000 m3/day
- Technology: Reverse Osmosis (RO)
- Project type: Engineering & Procurement
- Location: Australia
- Footprint: 54,000 m2 (300m x 180m)
- Commissioning date: 2013
Highlights
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Size & durability
The first large-scale pre-engineered modular plant. The entire plant was fabricated in 60 pre-assembled modules and tested in the production facility before being shipped to the site.
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Winning design for complex seawater conditions
Overcame difficult seawater conditions including very high levels of Total Suspended Solids (TSS), high levels of organics, and large numbers of jellyfish, as well as significant daily tidal variations and conflicting currents that reverse seawater temperature and characteristics every six months.
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Compliance with strict Australian environmental standards
The Sino Iron desalination plant is designed to be one of the most electrically and chemically efficient plants in Australia.

