BQE Water Inc, a leader in the treatment and management of mine impacted waters, has been awarded a contract for the design, construction and operation of a SART (sulphidisation, acidification, recycling and thickening) plant to improve gold leaching efficiency and overall cyanide management at a gold metallurgical facility in Shandong Province, China, owned by Shandong Gold Mining.
With a contract structure similar to two previous SART plants in the province signed in 2019 that are now in operation with support services from BQE Water, this contract has two project phases. The first involves engineering design, procurement, construction, plant commissioning and start-up. The second is for on-site operations support services for an initial period of five years in exchange for a quarterly service fee based on plant performance.
“The Shandong Gold contract solidifies our leadership position with the SART process technology not only in China but globally,” David Kratochvil, President & CEO of BQE Water, said. “Cyanide management needs are on the rise from the mining of more deposits containing mineralisation that interferes with gold leaching and the increased industry focus for projects to be environmentally responsible and socially acceptable. Through the capabilities of our team, we are committed to supporting the gold mining and smelting sector in meeting their project requirements.”
Songlin Ye, Vice President for Asia at BQE Water, adds: “The fact that Shandong Gold sole-sourced the project from BQE Water speaks volumes about our SART expertise. And with the backing of three SART plants for the three largest gold producers in the region, we look forward to further growing our cyanide management market in China and Asia in general.”
BQE Water says it is a global leader in the SART process which enables cyanide consumed by base metals to be recovered and recycled, lowering the cost of gold extraction and reducing the environmental footprint of gold mining projects. The company also provides solutions to manage the by-products of cyanidation and cyanide destruction such as ammonia, nitrite and thiocyanate removal.