A Houston company’s failed, multimillion-dollar project to mine minerals and water from brine waste from El Paso Water’s desalination plant is being revived by a Florida company.
Critical Materials Corp., or CMC, of Jacksonville, Florida, in December paid between $5 million to $6 million to buy the never-opened brine treatment plant and its equipment located next to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant in East El Paso.
It’s evaluating what needs to be done, but hopes to have it running by the end of the year, said Steve McArthur, CEO of the 2-year-old company.
“Water treatment and minerals extraction are our specialty,” McArthur said. “We’ve operated many, many mineral extraction plants in the past” for large metals-mining companies, and that's "one of the reasons" the company should succeed in El Paso, he said.