BioteQ Environmental Technologies, a leader in the treatment of industrial waste water, has commenced its seventh season of water treatment operations at Xstrata Nickel’s Raglan site, located in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec. BioteQ’s ChemSulphide® plant treats surface water, applying ISO 14001 standards for environmental compliance that meet very strict water quality requirements to produce clean water for release to the environment.
BioteQ has a fee-based operating contract with Xstrata, and is responsible for operating the ChemSulphide plant as well as the Spoon water treatment plant at the site. It is anticipated that the ChemSulphide plant will treat approximately 1 million m3 of water during the 2011 operating season, depending on the availability of water after the snow melt. BioteQ creates custom water treatment solutions to recover dissolved metals and remove sulphate from water impacted by mining, energy and industrial activities. The company’s clean technologies convert wastewater into a useful resource while delivering lower life cycle costs for water treatment. BioteQ has designed and built 14 plants at sites in Canada, the US, Mexico, Australia and China, with additional projects in development.
The ChemSulphide plant was built in 2003, replacing a low-density sludge lime treatment plant. BioteQ’s sulphide technology was chosen for the site because it does not produce any metal-laden sludge that would otherwise create an ongoing waste disposal concern in the pristine northern environment. The process operates effectively in the cold northern climate, which allows the treatment season to be extended to 5 or 6 months of the year.