BacTech Environmental Corp, a commercially proven environmental technology company delivering eco-friendly bioleaching and remediation solutions for precious metal and critical mineral recovery, has announced that industry partner MIRARCO Mining Innovation will receive C$280,000 in grant money through the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network, a program focused on developing initiatives for the commercialisation of mining technology to increase productivity and sustainability within the mining sector.

The funding will be used to help develop and complete pilot testing of BacTech’s novel bioleaching process relevant to the treatment of pyrrhotite to advance the recovery of nickel and cobalt battery metals. Pyrrhotite is a very volatile sulphide mineral containing nickel and cobalt values that oxidises rapidly and produces large amounts of iron and sulphur components as by-products which are typically considered as wastes. Pyrrhotite tailings used in testing will be provided to MIRARCO by industry partner Vale.

Dr Nadia Mykytczuk, a leader in biomining technology, member of BacTech’s advisory board and President and CEO of MIRARCO Mining Innovation, is leading the development and building of a bioleach pilot plant to be located in Sudbury, Canada. Working closely with BacTech’s scientific team, the plant is for the testing of various bioleaching processes like the company’s proposed approach for pyrrhotite treatment.

“Focusing on ‘Made in Canada’ scientific solutions for waste mine management makes sense, and bioleaching is well positioned to complement modern mining practices and help extract critical minerals from waste,” said Dr Mykytczuk. “Partnerships with industry are important in accelerating the scale-up and commercialization of these types of technologies and the MICA grant will help deliver on these goals.”