Your water is your production. Don't lose it to evaporation or algae.
When water supply is the constraint, evaporation isn't a utility cost, it's a risk to throughput. Covex® is a hexagonal floating cover that seals the water-air interface, cutting evaporation to protect the water that keeps your operation running, while it blocks algae and removes the open water that attracts wildlife.
It all starts at the water-air interface.
Wherever your stored or process water meets the air, the same three things happen, regardless of what you mine: water evaporates, light feeds algae, and the open surface draws in wildlife. In arid regions a reservoir can lose up to 3,400 mm of water column per year to evaporation alone.
Evaporation
The scarcest resource in the operation is lost in the open air: up to 3.4 m³ of water per m² of exposed surface per year. Every uncovered reservoir is a silent leak of water and money.
Algae and water quality
Sunlight on the open surface fuels photosynthesis. Algae blooms degrade water quality, clog pumps and filters, and force extra treatment across fresh, process and stored water alike.
Wildlife and compliance
The open water surface attracts birds and animals to reservoirs that may be acidic, saline or cyanide-bearing. Covering the surface reduces the risk of wildlife fatalities and the fines that follow.
A cover that self-installs and self-adjusts.
The hexagonal HDPE modules float, interlock, and settle on their own to the reservoir level. They require no structure, anchoring, or maintenance. Each unit carries water ballast that keeps it in place even in extreme wind.
Less evaporation
The physical barrier of the hexagons cuts the mass exchange between water and air. 98% coverage of the liquid surface.
Retains process heat
The air chamber inside each module acts as an insulating barrier, reducing nighttime heat loss and improving leaching.
Stops algae growth
By blocking light, it inhibits photosynthesis in the stored water, preserving water quality.
Virtually eliminates the open water surface
With no visible reflective surface, birds and animals are far less likely to detect the reservoir and stay away.
The same cover, the value that matters to you.
The physics of the water-air interface is universal, but the priority changes with the metal and the process. Find your operation below.
Copper
- Water recovery in arid, high-altitude operations where every m³ is costly to source: less makeup water and a more stable acid balance in the circuit.
- Heat retention in leaching solutions: warmer solution overnight means less energy to replace the next day and better leaching kinetics.
- HDPE formulated for ESCR, the critical factor against acidic PLS and raffinate.
- Wildlife exclusion on acidic ponds: environmental permits increasingly require covering open water surfaces, and regulators audit this on site.
Gold
- Cyanide Code alignment: a continuous physical barrier that helps keep birds and wildlife away from cyanide-bearing solutions.
- Auditable wildlife exclusion that does not rely on active devices such as nets, cannons or lasers.
- Evaporation control on barren and PLS ponds, recovering water and solution.
- Lower reagent loss: sealing the surface limits cyanide volatilization and blocks the sunlight that drives UV photodegradation.
Other Minerals
- Evaporation control for fresh and process water reservoirs across all commodities, including silver, iron, molybdenum, coal, and polymetallic operations.
- Algae and odor control that protects water quality and nearby communities.
- Freeze delay in cold-climate and high-altitude operations: water stays available longer through the night and intake infrastructure stays protected.
- Wildlife exclusion on tailings ponds and process water reservoirs, where open water mirrors are a recurring inspection finding.
The case isn't the cost of water. It's the value of water.
When water supply is the constraint on production, the question stops being "how much does the cover cost" and becomes "what does an interruption cost". This is the logic our clients have used to justify evaporation control.
A water-limited circuit that runs short doesn't slow down, it stops, and a stopped operation can cost millions of dollars per day. Against that, every cubic metre the cover keeps in the reservoir is production protected.
Protects production, not just the water bill
Where supply is limited, evaporation isn't a utility cost, it's a risk to throughput. Covex® keeps water in the reservoir so the process keeps running, which is where the real money is.
Avoids sinking new bores
Adding supply by drilling new bores is slow and expensive: a single bore can cost USD 1 million or more for just a few litres per second. The evaporation a cover recovers can offset the output of more than one bore.
Installed on the operating asset, no prep work
No site preparation, no draining, no downtime. The cover is deployed directly onto the reservoir while it stays in service, avoiding the construction risk of conventional alternatives.
Evaporation losses accurately modelled
The savings aren't a sales claim. Covex® quantifies the evaporation loss for your specific reservoir and climate, so the business case rests on numbers you can audit.
Safer diver inspections and repairs
The modular surface lets a diver surface anywhere across the reservoir rather than tracking back to a single opening, making underwater inspection and repair work safer.
Removable when it's time to reline
When an old asset is eventually relined, the cover can be removed, the new liner installed, and the cover put back, something a fixed geomembrane cover can't offer.
Whether it holds water or solution, the cover protects the temperature.
Covex® works on the water-air interface, and what it protects depends on what is in the pond. Water sits at ambient temperature, so by day the cover keeps it cooler and cuts evaporation. Process solution carries the heat the circuit gave it, so the cover holds that temperature stable instead of letting the sun and air pull it around, and slows the heat it loses at night. Find your case below.
It keeps water cooler under the sun.
On exposed reservoirs held at ambient temperature, the hexagons block radiation before it heats the water, so the covered surface stays several degrees below the uncovered one and loses far less water.
It holds the process temperature and delays freezing.
Process solution carries the heat the circuit gave it, and that heat is energy you paid for. The cover holds that temperature stable, shielding the solution from the swings the open air would impose, and slowing the heat loss that the circuit would otherwise have to replace. Against a -5°C environment, Covex® keeps the solution up to 5.2°C warmer than the uncovered surface through the critical first hours of cooling.
The effect is decisive where there is freezing risk: an uncovered surface reaches 0°C at 7.5 hours, while under Covex® the freezing point is delayed to 12 hours, 60% more time.
Protect wildlife and back your compliance.
In line with the strict global environmental regulations governing mining activity, preventing wildlife contact with process solutions and operational fluids is a critical priority. Covex® provides a continuous physical barrier that eliminates the visible open water surface, becoming an auditable solution to mitigate wildlife risks and ensure sustainable operational continuity.
No open water, no attraction
By covering 98% of the surface, birds are unlikely to perceive a body of water to land on or drink from. The deterrence is structural and does not rely on active devices.
HDPE grade for acidic environments
High-density polyethylene withstands contact with PLS, raffinate, and cyanide solutions. The formulation prioritizes environmental stress cracking resistance (ESCR), the critical factor in mining chemistry.
Independent technical validation
The system has evaporation and thermal-behavior validation through TRNSYS, ANSYS Fluent and CFD modeling, with academic institutions and water research centers.
Zero maintenance, automatic adjustment
The hexagons rearrange themselves as the level changes. There is no structure to inspect and no anchors to fail during an audit.
"Implement measures to protect birds, other wildlife and livestock from adverse effects of cyanide process solutions."
The Code requires operations to restrict wildlife access to any open water where WAD cyanide exceeds 50 mg/l. Among the measures it explicitly recognizes are fencing, filling collection ditches with gravel, and covering or netting the solution in ponds and impoundments, including the use of floating covers. It also notes that hazing techniques, cannons, lasers and similar active deterrents, are typically not adequate on their own to meet this Standard of Practice.
Data measured on site, not catalog promises.
Installed at the largest mining companies in the world.
Let's do the numbers.
Tell us about your reservoir and we will provide an estimate of evaporation, energy savings, and payback for your site.
A specialist will review your site data and contact you with a savings and payback estimate.
Technical Resources
See how a modular floating barrier recovers water, retains heat, and protects wildlife across mine site reservoirs: floating covers for mining reservoirs.