827 3. STUDY CASE The case study applies the proposed methodological framework to the Caserones mining operation, operated by Lundin Mining, located within the Copiapó River basin in northern Chile. This basin represents a water-scarce and highly stressed territorial system where mining activities coexist with agricultural users, rural drinking water systems, and environmentally sensitive areas (Figure 2). The analysis focuses on the potential role of shared desalinated water infrastructure as a strategic alternative to conventional project-based water supply, assessing its implications for supply security, territorial interactions, and environmental performance at a regional scale. The study builds on the spatial database and cost layers already implemented in the decision-support tool for the Copiapó basin, which are updated to reflect the operational context of Caserones and the set of supply and demand nodes relevant to the regional network. Due to data confidentiality requirements associated with the operation, quantitative values and absolute magnitudes are not reported; instead, the analysis is conducted and presented in relative and comparative terms. Figure 2 – a) Atacama region stakeholders b) Protected conservation areas Two future planning scenarios are analysed, corresponding explicitly to the years 2035 and 2045. These scenarios represent medium-term and long-term horizons, respectively, and are intended to capture different stages in the evolution of water supply strategies for the operation and the basin. In both scenarios, a consistent regional configuration of potential desalinated water sources, shared conveyance infrastructure, and interacting users is considered, allowing the comparative assessment of alternative network configurations generated by the tool. For each scenario, the suggested water supply networks are evaluated through sensitivity analyses of key planning inputs, enabling the identification of robust solutions under varying assumptions without disclosing confidential operational parameters.
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