The water on your tailings dam is a risk until you take it off.
Supernatant and decant water at 5,000–50,000 mg/L TDS — sitting on the tailings, eating into freeboard and loading the dam — is a safety and compliance exposure that grows with every storm. Desalus funds, builds, owns and operates the treatment that draws that water down to 99%+ recovery — you simply buy back clean water for reuse at an attractive rate per thousand gallons, with zero brine, zero new pond and zero disposal liability. Desalus recovers and markets the resulting farm-grade fertilizer, which is how your water price stays low. Your win: affordable clean water, less water on the dam and zero capital.
Every cubic metre on the dam is a metre of risk you carry.
A tailings storage facility is a water balance you can't fully close. Supernatant pools on the beach, decant volumes swing with the weather, and seepage and evaporation never quite keep pace. The water that stays is the water that erodes your freeboard, raises the phreatic surface and turns a wet season into a dam-safety decision — exactly the failure mode GISTM was written to stop.
- Freeboard is finite — pooled supernatant and a rising pond steal the margin you need to ride out a design storm without overtopping.
- Evaporation isn't a strategy — you lose clean water to the air, leave the salts behind, and still don't draw the pond down fast enough.
- Scrutiny is only rising — post-failure standards like GISTM and tighter regulators put TSF water volume and dam stability under a brighter light every year.
What letting water sit on the dam really costs
Pumping water between ponds buys time, not margin. Desalus funds, builds and operates the treatment that takes the water off the dam — you buy back clean water for reuse, waste-free.
Stop storing TSF water. Start drawing it down.
Desalus is a full water-treatment service built for the saline, metal-bearing water that collects on a tailings facility — pulling nearly all of it back into reuse and converting the dissolved load into product instead of leaving it on the dam.
99%+ recovery, zero brine
Recover almost all of the supernatant and decant water as clean water and eliminate the reject stream entirely. No new ponds, no brine to store on an already-loaded dam.
Freeboard you can defend
Drawing the pond down restores the margin between water and crest — the single number your regulator, your EoR and GISTM care about most.
Lower water cost, zero capital
No capex, no opex burden. Desalus funds, builds and runs everything — you pay only for clean water delivered, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons that beats your current all-in cost. The dissolved load is recovered as farm-grade fertilizer Desalus sells, which keeps your price low.
Built for 5k–50k mg/L
Purpose-engineered for the high-salinity, metal-rich supernatant band where evaporation is too slow and RO chokes on the reject.
Water unlocked for reuse
Recovered clean water goes back to the mill, dust suppression or local supply — water that was effectively locked up in storage now does work.
Service, not just steel
Desalus delivers treatment as an engineered, operated service tuned to your TSF chemistry and water balance — not a box your team has to run.
Right in the band where TSF water defeats the alternatives
From freshly decanted supernatant to concentrated pond water that's cycled through the facility for years, Desalus is designed for 5,000–50,000 mg/L total dissolved solids — exactly the range tailings water reaches as it sits and concentrates.
The highlighted band is the Desalus sweet spot — where pooled tailings water strands evaporation and membranes today.
Desalus vs. evaporation vs. pump-and-store
The same supernatant, three very different outcomes for your dam.
| Outcome | Desalus | Evaporation | Pump & store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water recovery | 99%+ | Low — lost to air | None — just relocated |
| Effect on freeboard | Real, fast drawdown | Slow drawdown | No net drawdown |
| Residual waste stream | None | Salt crust left behind | Water still on dam |
| Dam-safety / GISTM risk | Lower — ZLD drawdown | High | High |
| Capital you outlay | None — Desalus owns & operates | You fund & build | You fund & build |
| What you pay for | Clean water, per 1,000 gal | Disposal, forever | Pumping, forever |
| Your all-in water cost | Lowest & predictable | Highest | High |
From water balance to drawn-down dam in four steps.
It starts with your numbers. Send Desalus a full-panel water quality report and your TSF water balance, and you'll get a site-specific model of exactly how much water and freeboard you can recover from the pond you're managing today — and your clean-water rate per thousand gallons.
Start with your water reportShare your full-panel report
Send supernatant chemistry — TDS, sulfate, metals, pH — plus your water balance and pond volumes through the Desalus contact form. The richer the panel, the sharper the model.
Get a site-specific model
Desalus quantifies recovery, freeboard regained, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons, and the capital and disposal costs you avoid for your exact TSF water — before any commitment.
Desalus builds & operates it
Desalus capitalizes, installs and runs the KNeW Process, Zix-Zak ion exchange and No-Briner systems around your facility's flow, chemistry and water balance — no capex or operating burden for you.
Buy back clean water, de-risk the dam
You purchase clean water at your agreed rate per thousand gallons and return it to use; the pond on the dam comes down — restoring freeboard and easing GISTM scrutiny. Brine never exists, and the recovered salts become farm-grade fertilizer Desalus markets, which is how your water price stays low.
Raise profit. Reclaim freeboard. Protect the dam.
The award-winning systems behind the Desalus service turn the water you've been struggling to get off the tailings into your most surprising asset.
What TSF managers ask first
Can Desalus actually draw the pond down on my tailings facility?
Yes — that's the point. By recovering 99%+ of supernatant and decant water as clean water for reuse, Desalus removes volume from the facility instead of relocating it. Less water on the dam means more freeboard and a lower phreatic surface, which directly improves your dam-safety and GISTM position. It's built for the 5,000–50,000 mg/L TDS range typical of pooled tailings water.
What happens to the salts and metals in the water?
They become product, not residue. The dissolved load that makes supernatant hard to manage is recovered as farm-grade fertilizer. There's no salt crust to leave on the beach and no brine to store on the dam — true zero-liquid-discharge.
How does this help with GISTM and dam safety?
Directly. GISTM and modern regulators focus on water volume, freeboard and stability. Taking water off the facility with zero discharge reduces stored volume, restores design freeboard and lowers the pool that drives the phreatic surface — strengthening the case you make to your Engineer of Record and reviewers.
How does the Desalus model work — what do I actually pay?
Desalus capitalizes, builds, owns, operates and maintains the facility on your site. You don't buy equipment or run anything — you simply purchase the clean water Desalus recovers for reuse, at an attractive rate per thousand gallons. Because Desalus recovers and sells the resulting farm-grade fertilizer, we can price your water below conventional treat-and-dispose alternatives while leaving zero waste. The fertilizer revenue is Desalus'; your benefit is cheaper water, more freeboard and no liability.
How do I find out what my TSF water can do for me?
Send a full-panel water analysis plus your water balance and pond volumes through the contact form on desalus.com. You'll receive a site-specific model of recovery, freeboard regained, your clean-water rate per thousand gallons, and the capital and disposal costs you avoid — before any commitment.
See how much water — and risk — you can take off the dam.
Send Desalus a full-panel water quality report and your TSF water balance and get site-specific insight into the clean water, freeboard — and the savings — waiting in the pond you already manage.
No obligation. The report drives a site-specific model of recovery, your water rate per thousand gallons, freeboard regained and the costs you avoid.
- Quantified water recovery for your exact supernatant chemistry
- Your attractive clean-water rate per thousand gallons
- Freeboard regained and stored volume removed from the dam
- Zero capital outlay — Desalus funds, builds & operates it all