Scoria Environmental Ltd has approved a proposed private placement offering of up to $7.5 million. Proceeds of the Offering will be used to fund the planned optimisation program of Scoria’s Minex Process, a patented pyrometallurgical technology developed to address the environmental impact of some 2,000 Mt of mining and metallurgical slags by removing the valuable metals within these slags and discharging an environmentally non hazardous waste which can be applied in secondary industries such as road building and construction.

Matthew Dorman, Scoria’s Managing Director, stated: “This funding will enable the final step in the development of the Minex Process which has moved from static bench test evaluation tests to continuous full process programs. All development work to date has shown that the process effectively removes 90% of targeted metals from what would otherwise be considered an environmental and economic liability whilst generating a stable, non-hazardous discharge. The process has significant environmental and economic upside for waste owners.”

This extraction method uses chlorine gas and high temperature. By creating a metal chloride salt at a high temperature (greater than the boiling point of the salt) the salt changes from a solid into a gas. This gas can easily be separated from the remaining solids and transports the extracted metals for recovery.

The picture shows a conceptual flowsheet.

SRK Consulting has stated “On the basis of the trials completed to date the Minex Process has proved to be an effective method of unlocking intrinsic value in otherwise uneconomic waste, complex metal containing feed material and lends itself to becoming an alternative solution to processing certain primary ores.”