BQE Water Inc., a leader in the treatment and management of mine impacted waters, has announced a contract to perform laboratory testing and conceptual engineering for a non-biological selenium removal water treatment plant using the company’s patented Selen-IX™ technology for a mine in Latin America.

David Kratochvil, CEO of BQE Water, commented: “As the first selenium project with regulatory drivers linked to long-term operation of an existing large scale mine in Latin America, this early-stage technical assessment contract is very significant. First, it allows us to demonstrate the capabilities and quantified benefits of Selen-IX™ in reducing life-cycle costs and risks of selenium management. Second, it helps to increase awareness about non-biological treatment of selenium in Latin America where selenium regulations are in very early stages of adoption and familiarity with commercially proven technological solutions somewhat lags behind North America.”

BQE’s Selen-IX™ technology is a patented and award-winning process of removing selenium from wastewater reaching effluent limits well below 0.002 mg/L, effectively eliminating reliance on dilution, and producing stable non-hazardous solid residue suitable for re-use. Since its first commercial application in 2020, Selen-IX has been successfully implemented at four sites across North America with the fifth installation currently under construction in the US. As the only commercially proven non-biological treatment system, Selen-IX™ offers unique advantages of rapid start-up and ramp-up from minimum to maximum design plant capacity, seasonal or intermittent treatment, zero sensitivity to water temperature, and zero risk of downstream impacts caused by organo-selenium species produced by biological systems.

BQE Water is a service provider specialising in water treatment and management for metals mining, smelting and refining. “We are helping to transform the way the industry thinks about water in the context of natural resource projects by offering services and expertise which enables more sustainable water management practices and improved overall project performance at reduced risks. BQE Water invests in innovation and has developed unique intellectual property through the commercialisation of several new technologies at mine sites around the world for organisations including Glencore, Jiangxi Copper, Freeport-McMoRan and the US EPA.”