TSX-listed Rio2 Limited has chalked up a major win for its flagship Fenix Gold mine in Chile’s Atacama region by inking deals with two separate desalinated water providers that could more than triple output to 300,000 ounces of gold a year.

The Canadian developer’s Chilean subsidiary, Fenix Gold Limitada, has teamed up with water distributors in Copiapó to investigate the logistics of piping desalinated water from the coast to the mine’s lofty Andean location.

If it comes off, it will be the first-ever use of desalinated water at a high-altitude mine in the Atacama and an industry breakthrough in one of the planet’s driest regions.

Under the deals, each water provider will launch concept studies to weigh up supply options and the pipeline infrastructure needed to pump water up to Fenix

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