Tag Archives: cyanide

BQE Water achieves several firsts with Zhongkuang SART plant operation

Environmental, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mining services, Precious metals, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , ,

BQE Water says it has advanced the SART plant it designed for a gold metallurgical facility owned by Shandong Zhongkuang Group Co Ltd, in China, to full production.

Located in the Shandong Province in eastern China, the plant is now being operated under the ongoing technical supervision of BQE Water.

Implementing SART (sulphidisation, acidification, recycling and thickening) at the site improves both the environmental performance and project economics of the metallurgical facility, BQE said. Specifically, the SART plant eliminates the need for cyanide destruction, recovers copper and zinc as separate sulphide concentrates, and recycles free cyanide recovered by the plant to gold leaching.

BQE was awarded the SART plant contract back in 2019 following the positive outcome of an engineering feasibility study and on-site testing completed by BQE Water earlier in the year.

The Zhongkuang SART plant also represents many firsts, according to BQE:

  • It is the first application of SART globally where the cyanide competing base metals, copper and zinc, are recovered simultaneously from the leach solution as two separate high-grade concentrates that can be sold to generate incremental revenues;
  • It is the first commercial scale application of SART in China;
  • It is the first SART plant where lime is used to control gas emissions to reduce operating costs and control the build-up of salts in the process water; and
  • It is the first SART plant to be integrated into a complex metallurgical flowsheet that combines mineral flotation with cyanidation and SART in a Zero Liquid Discharge metallurgical facility with complete water recycle.

Songlin Ye, Vice President for Asia at BQE Water, said: “We are very proud of our China-based operations team for this significant achievement and that they were able to do so considering the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Zhongkuang SART plant is our flagship project for the China gold sector and other gold producers in the country are taking notice.”

David Kratochvil, President & CEO of BQE Water, added: “The many firsts associated with the Zhongkuang SART plant demonstrates our leadership in SART technology. And through the unique combination of engineering know-how and operations expertise, the project also shows our ability to reduce risks and achieve predictable outcomes for our clients.”

DST to help Newmont go cyanide-free with CLEVR agreement

Environmental, Metallurgy, Mineral processing, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , , ,

Dundee Sustainable Technologies has entered into a Technology Transfer Licensing Agreement with Newmont for the use of DST’s cyanide-free gold extraction technology, known as the CLEVR Process™.

DST has been in ongoing discussions and technology review with Newmont regarding its CLEVR gold extraction process to evaluate and quantify its applicability on projects selected by Newmont.

Following a successful test work program in the March quarter of this year, Newmont expressed its interest in the execution of such an agreement allowing Newmont to conduct laboratory CLEVR leaching tests in its technical facilities in Englewood, Colorado.

The method used by DST uses no cyanide, produces no toxic liquid or gaseous effluent, and the solid residues are inert, stable and non-acid generating, according to the company.

David Lemieux, President and CEO, said: “We are very pleased to announce this agreement with Newmont which is the culmination of much work and dialogue between our companies. Our collaboration with a global gold producer is the result of years of continuous efforts in developing an innovative and technically sound process for the industry.”

He added: “Today’s announcement is further validation of DST’s CLEVR Process as one of the leading cyanide-free alternatives for the gold industry, and it represents an important milestone in the early-stage adoption and understanding of our technology by a world leading gold company.”

As part of the agreement, DST and Newmont, agreed to:

  • A two-year, non-exclusive licence for the utilisation of CLEVR at the laboratory scale in its Colorado technical facilities with an option to renew, for an additional two-year period under the same terms;
  • Technology implementation support by DST, including all technology laboratory protocols in addition to technical training sessions to initiate and support the technology transfer and practical operations;
  • Ongoing technology support and for DST to review the laboratory test plans, execution, and results conducted by Newmont; and
  • Any process scaling-up requirements, resulting from positive applications of CLEVR, will be conducted jointly with Newmont at DST’s technical facilities in Canada and/or on-site using DST’s technology and engineering group expertise.

The objective of the agreement is to facilitate the adoption, understanding and application of CLEVR on various gold projects being, or to be, developed by Newmont. The agreement was executed on November 25, 2020.

Heritage eyes up Mount Morgan riches, rehabilitation

Base metals, Environmental, Metallurgy, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining services, Precious metals, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A partnership between GreenGold Engineering and Heritage Minerals Pty Ltd has plans to return the Mount Morgan gold mine in Queensland, Australia, to some of its former glory by creating a mean and green way to extract gold from its ample tailings deposits.

The cooperation allows Heritage Minerals to develop the project in a proactive program to maximise the best chance of project success, the company says. Heritage admits it has a big task on its hands, facing doubters that have witnessed a string of false starts at Mount Morgan.

The story behind Mount Morgan dates to 1882 when a syndicate was created to open a gold mine at Ironstone Mountain, 39 km south of Rockhampton.

Ironstone Mountain, later renamed Mount Morgan, was originally operated as an open-pit gold mine at the top of the mountain, before being converted to an underground copper and gold mine.

In 1935, it transitioned back to an open-pit operation and continued until the mine closed in 1980. After this, Peko Wallsend Ltd ran a tailings treatment operation from 1982 until 1991, recovering gold from 27 Mt of tailings.

Mount Morgan pioneered many metallurgical processes to cope with the unique properties of the ore over this time. From chlorine leaching in the early days to various flotation and smelting furnace techniques for the copper/gold ore, the Mount Morgan tailings stockpiles have a rich and varied history.

At different stages over the life of the mine, copper was either a bonus or a nuisance. When copper grades were high, copper was a financial benefit; when the copper grade was low, the metal increased the operating cost associated with gold recovery.

This more than century of mining and processing came with consequences.

The pyrite remaining in the mine and tailings dumps is acid-forming and has generated a significant environmental legacy which remains today. This legacy has become the responsibility of the State of Queensland (1993) and is managed by the Department of Natural Resources and Mining’s (DNRM) Abandoned Mines Division.

Despite these environmental liabilities, five companies have come back to Mount Morgan since Peko Wallsend stopped operations in the early-1990s, encouraged by higher yellow metal prices and improved processing options for the refractory ore.

“We’re the sixth company to have a shot at reprocessing the tailings, with none of the companies before us getting past the feasibility study stage into financing,” Peter Mellor, Corporate Secretary at Heritage Minerals, told IM.

All of them were unsuccessful primarily because of the presence of nuisance copper and the high cyanide consumption that comes with removing this, according to Mellor.

The most recent company to try its luck at Mount Morgan is a case in point.

ASX-listed Carbine Resources developed a process flowsheet to remove part of the troublesome copper by acid leaching the tailings and producing copper sulphate. Additional revenue from the production of pyrite concentrate supplemented gold sales.

It was the production of premium quality (50% sulphur) unroasted iron pyrite concentrate that enabled the commencement of the reduction of acid-forming material at Mount Morgan, Carbine said.

Despite coming up with a 1.1 Mt/y blueprint that, in the expanded case, could operate for 20 years and produce 23,000 oz/y of gold, 2,700 t/y of copper sulphate and 200,000 t/y of pyrite concentrate, the plan ultimately fell down on the projected economic returns, negatively impacted by excessive royalty liabilities.

A February 2018 update came with a revised operating model at Mount Morgan showing all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of A$862/oz ($621/oz), A$313/oz higher than the company’s December 2016 feasibility study.

“The increase is due primarily to higher cyanide consumption and lower by-products credits due to a lower pyrite price and the loss of copper sulphate premium associated with a change in the copper products produced,” Carbine explained.

Fresh approach

To be fair to Mellor and the Heritage team, they are not looking to repackage the same project blueprint in a markedly better gold price environment as other companies have been known to attempt. Instead, they are setting up the project and the town of Mount Morgan for a brighter and sustainable future.

After gaining rights to the project from Norton Gold Fields following Carbine’s exit, one of the first things Heritage did was appoint GreenGold to carry out the definitive feasibility study.

Equipped with its ReCYN resin-based technology that has been shown on other projects to reduce cyanide consumption by up to 50% through capturing free cyanide from plant tailings and recycling it back into the leach circuit, the selection was an obvious choice.

The company could potentially detoxify the tailings stream and clean up the water discharge at Mount Morgan. This would be a boon for the DNRM, which currently treats the water from the open pit and tailings deposits before being released into the local creek due to the low pH levels caused by the acid-forming pyrite.

“Our process plant will use this water, treat it and send it out as clean water down the creek,” Mellor explained.

This is one of several changes the company is implementing to make the project viable.

“For example, Carbine were previously looking to float off the nuisance copper at the start, which came with the associated capital costs of building a flotation plant,” Mellor said. “Yet, the copper really represented a low amount of revenue (2,700 t of copper sulphate in the studies) overall.”

The ReCYN resin plant can deal with the higher cyanide consumption needed to treat the copper at the back end of the flowsheet. This will allow the company to focus on the gold – which represents 90% of revenue – that can be processed by a technically-simple carbon in leach plant.

Malcolm Patterson, MD of Heritage Minerals, and Peter Papa, Technical Director of Heritage Minerals, observe the task ahead at Mount Morgan

The open pit is partially filled with previously processed tailings, with Mellor saying the reprocessing of 10 Mt of tailings (averaging 1.1 g/ Au) can help complete the rehabilitation process.

“We have come up with a really neat environmental rehabilitation scenario where we fill the existing open pit up, and cap it all off nicely so the surface water cannot penetrate,” he said.

Set to build a 2 Mt/y plant to re-process this material, Heritage is only looking five years out from first production, although there is potential for this processing quantity to be doubled.

Even with this near-term gaze, the definitive feasibility study (DFS) anticipates a one-year payback and an upfront capital expenditure bill of A$74 million (compared with Carbine’s last A$96 million estimate).

“There is more potential than this,” Mellor says of the feasibility study, highlighting several areas of interest within proximity of the existing open pit. “Yet, we wanted to get the economic, environmental and social aspects ticked off first before laying out any longer-term plans.”

The company has been very thorough in coming up with this five-year plan.

Already blessed with an extensive JORC resource database from previous Mount Morgan tailings reprocessing protagonists, the company continued to drill for tonnage and bulk density definition of the tailings resource; the latter with a Dando percussion drill rig capable of punching 1 m cores down to 30 m depth.

With a board decision on the DFS expected before the end of the year, Heritage could soon enter the financing stage, followed (hopefully) by construction.

If all goes to plan, operations – a simplified earthmoving and processing method – could begin in 2022.

“Mount Morgan is definitely not the easiest site, but it is the most prestigious in terms of history and challenges,” Mellor says.

Heritage and GreenGold will soon be judged by the financing community on whether they are up to such a challenge.

GBM, Round Oak celebrate first gold doré at White Dam

Base metals, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Precious metals, Water management, , , , , , , , , ,

GBM Resources and Round Oak Minerals’ White Dam gold-copper heap leach asset in South Australia, has poured its first gold doré bar.

The achievement follows the completion of the sulphidisation-acidification-recycling-thickening (SART) plant build back in July, which earned GBM its 50% stake in the asset. GBM says the SART plant, and associated copper concentrate production, continues to ramp-up broadly in-line with expectations, while identified optimisation opportunities are expected to drive further expanded production and reduced costs.

White Dam, around 50 km southwest of Broken Hill, is a heap leach operation that, since 2010, has produced about 175,000 oz of gold from heap leaching of 7.5 Mt of ore at 0.94 g/t Au (which was mined from two open pits).

The JV owners say evaluation of the estimated remaining resources of 4.6 Mt grading 0.7 g/t Au for 101,900 oz of gold has commenced to determine the viability of the extraction and leaching of this material.

Peter Rohner, Managing Director and CEO, said: “I would like to thank the Round Oak site team for their ongoing efforts in optimising the SART plant operation. While recent rain has resulted in some minor delays, the additional water is set to drive increased heap leach irrigation and thus higher gold and copper production in the near term.

“We are now working to finalise shipping of the first copper concentrates once the concentrate drying process is completed. The SART plant is meeting its design objectives of removing copper and increasing the recovery of the cyanide solution back into the circuit to increase gold recoveries, which together enhance the overall economics of the White Dam operation.”

Sixth Wave and MPS team up to cut cyanide usage, costs in gold processing

Environmental, Metallurgy, Mineral processing, Precious metals, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sixth Wave Innovations says it is working with Australia-based Mining and Process Solutions (MPS) on test work initiatives in North America and Australia integrating Sixth Wave’s commercially available IXOS® molecular imprinted polymer for gold extraction with the MPS GlyCat™ process.

The GlyCat process was invented to reduce cyanide consumption while maintaining gold recovery for gold ores from deposits containing nuisance copper. For gold applications, the IXOS platform, meanwhile, is capable of selectively targeting gold while rejecting contaminants such as copper, mercury, and other non-target elements potentially contained in a gold-bearing cyanide leach solution.

The two companies are also working in collaboration with the Centre Technologique des Résidus Industriels (CTRI) and a top 10 gold producer in Canada. This project aims to develop an environmentally-friendly flowsheet for the gold mining industry, examining MPS’ acidic and alkaline leaching technologies, together with Sixth Wave’s molecular imprinted IXOS resin technology for the extraction of gold from alternative lixiviants. Testing is to be undertaken on ores provided by the Canadian mining partner, Sixth Wave said.

A recent study published in the Hydrometallurgy Journal titled ‘Gold recovery from cyanide-starved glycine solutions (Glycat) in the presence of Cu using molecularly imprinted polymer IXOS-AuC’ found that “gold recovery increased, while copper recovery decreased with the increasing gold concentration”, Sixth Wave said. The adsorption behaviour of IXOS-AuC had “the best selectivity compared to three other gold selective resins”, the study added. Other outcomes from the study showed the IXOS-AuC polymer was very robust, allowing reuse without deterioration of the polymer physically (assessed by scanning electron microscopy) or in performance.

“Our collaboration with MPS is an important initiative for Sixth Wave and our IXOS high performance gold extraction products,” Dr Jon Gluckman, President & CEO of Sixth Wave, said. “The industry is keenly interested in new and innovative approaches to leach and recover gold as a replacement, in whole or in part, for conventional processes. In order to focus on lowering capital expenditure and operating expenditure, and to comply with environmental and regulatory constraints, Sixth Wave is extremely interested in leveraging our technology with the benefits of the MPS glycine leaching and recovery process.”

Ivor Bryan, Managing Director of MPS, said: “Our respective technological approaches can bring tremendous value to prospective customers by significantly cutting cyanide usage along with the associated costs and environmental impact.”

Earlier this week, Sixth Wave Innovations signed a non-binding Letter of Intent to trial its IXOS purification polymer at the Rio2 Ltd-owned Fenix gold project in Chile.

Corem’s cyanide recovery and recycling process wins federal, provincial backing

Environmental, Metallurgy, Mineral processing, Mining finance, Mining policy, Precious metals, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , , , , ,

Quebec-based Corem is to receive C$2.1 million ($1.6 million) of funding from the Canadian government to support the development of an innovative process for the recovery and recycling of cyanide in the gold extraction process.

This new process is more environmentally sustainable and reduces the impact of gold mining on the aquatic ecosystem, according to Natural Resources Canada.

The announcement was made by Jean-Yves Duclos, President of Treasury Board of Canada and Member of Parliament for Quebec, on behalf of Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources. The Quebec Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources is also contributing an additional C$100,000 to this project, according to the government.

Following this cash injection provided through Natural Resources Canada’s Clean Growth Program, Corem will work to accelerate the deployment of the process at commercial scale by constructing a pilot-scale processing plant, NRC said.

“Corem’s promising recycling technology is expected to reduce the volume of contaminated water stored in tailings ponds, thereby contributing to the sustainability and competitiveness of the mining industry,” it added.

Francis Fournier, President and Chief Executive Officer of Corem, said: “This financial support demonstrates the importance and interest in the development of clean technologies for the mining industry and the Government of Canada. It allows Corem to pursue its mission of developing innovative solutions for the benefit of a sustainable mining industry and of working closely with our members, our customers and our partners.”

The Clean Growth Program invests in clean technology research and development projects in Canada’s energy, mining and forest sectors. The program is a C$155 million investment fund that helps emerging clean technologies further reduce their impacts on air, land and water while enhancing competitiveness and creating jobs, it says.

It also provides federal laboratory support for innovators under the Science and Technology Assistance for Cleantech initiative, which is intended to help bring Canadian clean technologies to market by providing federal research expertise, facilities and equipment.

Outotec addresses cyanide consumption with new BIOX refractory gold process

Environmental, Metallurgy, Mineral processing, Precious metals, Sustainable mining, , , , , , ,

Outotec has introduced its new MesoTHERM BIOX process to significantly reduce cyanide consumption in refractory gold ore treatment.

Traditionally, cyanide consumption with conventional bio-oxidation residues is higher than with residues produced through other oxidative technologies. The Outotec MesoTHERM BIOX® process, based on Outotec’s existing mesophile BIOX process, offers an easy, cost-effective upgrade path that can cut cyanide consumption by as much as 50% compared with conventional bio-oxidation, the company claims.

The BIOX process, which has been in commercial operation for over 30 years, was developed for the pre-treatment of refractory concentrates ahead of conventional cyanide leaching for gold recovery.

“The Outotec MesoTHERM BIOX process enhances the established mesophile BIOX process by combining mesophile bio-oxidation technology with a higher-temperature thermophile oxidative stage to enable an even more effective overall sulphide oxidation step,” Outotec says.

On top of cutting cyanide consumption by as much as 50% compared with conventional bio-oxidation, MesoTHERM BIOX significantly reduces the formation of thiocyanate – a common and stable cyanide species traditionally formed as a further by-product, the company said.

Solubilised species prevalent in the mesophile stage are decanted off in an inter-stage thickening step between the two oxidative processes, simplifying operation of the thermophile stage, the company explained.

For existing BIOX customers, upgrading to BIOX MesoTHERM is a “relatively simple process”, Outotec says. It involves reconfiguring the circuit with the addition of Outotec’s High Rate Thickeners for inter-stage thickening and Outotec OKTOP® Atmospheric Reactors for the thermophile step.

Craig van Buuren, Senior Process Engineer, Outotec, said: “Our conventional mesophile BIOX process has enabled the production of over 25 Moz of gold to date. This novel process takes advantage of these proven technologies to help our customers achieve significant cost savings while also reducing their environmental footprint.”

GreenGold’s ReCYN processing pipeline continues to grow

Base metals, Environmental, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, Precious metals, Water management, , , , , , , , ,

GreenGold Technology has been making huge waves of late, with its biggest ReCYN resin-based technology build to date nearing completion and several new projects on the horizon.

ReCYN reduces cyanide consumption by up to 50% by capturing free cyanide from plant tailings and recycling it back into the leach circuit while recovering metal complexes and making them available for sale, according to the company. In the process, it detoxifies the tailings stream and guarantees 100%-compliant clean water discharge.

Such technology is in serious demand considering the industry’s operational cost focus, increased stakeholder pressure around the use of cyanide, the need to recycle and replace as much water as possible, and a necessity to improve project economics through the recovery of all payable metals.

On top of this, new and existing gold projects are becoming difficult to process through conventional means with problems around by-products such as copper often proving to be the difference between a sub-economic and economic mine development proposition.

The ReCYN process is based on the use of a functionalised resin bead, pre-treated to allow the dual duty of recovering free and complexed cyanide ions from solution with a high degree of efficiency. GreenGold works with local construction companies to customise treatment plants for each operation to match the various solution chemistries and throughputs, it says.

“The two areas of cyanide recovery and metal detoxification are balanced to achieve the desired compliance levels,” GreenGold says. “Equally applicable to slurries and solutions, the process is technically and economically superior to all others currently available for the detoxification of gold plant tailings.”

The company currently has four ReCYN options for clients, according to Commercial Director, Peter Mellor.

ReCYN I is for active (free) cyanide reduction, while ReCYN II has been devised to include detox applications to recover cyanide complexes such as copper. ReCYN III adds gold recovery as a “secondary function” to the mix.

The fourth option (ReCYN IV) includes gold recovery as a primary option, Mellor told IM, explaining that the development of a plant offering in this configuration could remove the need for a carbon in leach treatment plant in some applications.

It is a ReCYN II installation the company is currently putting the finishing touches to at PT Agincourt Resources’ Martabe gold-silver operation in Sumatra, Indonesia (graphic above).

This project, which will detoxify tailings and recover cyanide and copper, was previously estimated by Whittle Consulting to provide a $126.9 million upside to the project.

Speaking to IM from Australia, Mellor said the company was just over a month away from completing the plant at Martabe before COVID-19 restrictions hit progress. He was confident the company would be back completing plant commissioning before the end of the year.

By far the biggest ReCYN installation of the technology, the ReCYN II plant at Martabe will fit into the 5.5 Mt/y circuit and treat around 1.2 t/d of copper, Mellor said. It will also have benefits in terms of reduced cyanide consumption and improved water quality at the operation.

While work in Indonesia is currently not taking place, the company is making significant progress elsewhere.

Mellor said GreenGold had started detailed engineering for a plant in the Ivory Coast, while it had also completed an economic study on a legacy gold operation in Australia that showed compelling economics and the potential for a ReCYN IV installation for processing gold-bearing tailings.

The company also has some 40 projects it is working on in the laboratory – from Australia to the US – with client awards expected in the next few months.

CyanoGuard receives EU, investor backing for next gen cyanide monitoring solution

Environmental, IoT, Mineral processing, Mining services, Mining software, Precious metals, , , , , , , ,

Switzerland-based chemtech startup CyanoGuard has completed a fundraising and been awarded a non-dilutive SME Instrument grant by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program that, it says, will speed up market penetration and develop further applications for its next generation cyanide monitoring solutions.

Established in 2016, CyanoGuard has since developed and commercialised its solutions for gold mining operations, food safety testing and healthcare.

Co-Founders Benedikt Kirchgässler (CEO) and Mathias Cherbuin (CTO) transformed a chemical technology for rapid toxin detection from the labs of the University of Zurich into a “comprehensive digital solution package” that has found its first commercial application in the gold mining industry.

The company has now raised more than CHF3 million ($3.12 million) to help further develop the technology, which CyanoGuard says can minimise cyanide consumption by 12% while maximising extraction efficiency through real-time, instaneous measurement results.

Kirchgässler said: “These funds enable us to scale our ground-breaking monitoring solutions and roll them out to gold mines around the world.

“I am excited about the positive impact that our digital, artificial intelligence-based technology has on the global gold mining industry as well as the local communities and the environment.

“I believe that we will benefit from both the experience of leading venture funds…as well as the support of the European Union to speed up market penetration and develop further applications for our technology.”

With the newly raised capital from this seed round, CyanoGuard plans to accelerate its go-to-market strategy in the global mining industry.

Alex Stöckl, Founding Partner at Wingman Ventures, who has joined CyanoGuard’s Board of Directors following the funding round, added: “With its current offering, CyanoGuard has a unique value proposition for its mining clients that is beyond improved cyanide testing. This encompasses an efficiency-enhancing digitisation of process control and a more sustainable usage of cyanide in mining operations.

“We are convinced that Benedikt, Mathias and their team will drive CyanoGuard to become a globally leading provider of digital mining solutions.”

The freshly obtained funds are also intended to further expedite the development of CyanoGuard’s product offering for food safety and healthcare applications, the company said.

EnviroLeach test results bode well for gold market take-up

Environmental, Mineral processing, Precious metals, , , ,

EnviroLeach Technologies has announced the successful completion of what it says is a comprehensive lab and bulk sample program using its patented cyanide-free formula on high-grade gravity table tailings material from a mid-tier gold producer.

Estimated gold recoveries from the bulk sample (2.7 t of material) averaged 97% and produced 277.8 oz of gold using the EnviroLeach process, which can effectively dissolve gold into aqueous solution with similar leach kinetics and economics to that of cyanide but is sustainable, safe and environmentally friendly, according to the company.

Following extensive lab and bench scale test programs, a locked cycle, bulk test program (leaching, filtering and electrowinning) was carried out on this 2.7 t bulk sample of table tails from the gold mining operation. The objective of the bulk test program was to determine the efficacy and recovery rates of gold from the host material using EnviroLeach’s proprietary formula and to collect key operational data such as leach kinetics, chemical reusability, reagent consumption and costs, the company said. The bulk test produced no tailings effluent, as all filtrate/liquids were reused in the process.

The test results report an overall average estimated gold recovery of 97% and three gold bars were produced having a combined gold content of 277.8 oz.

Duane Nelson, EnviroLeach CEO, said: “This successful bulk test on these high-grade gravity tails clearly validates the proficiency of our patented formula to offer a cost-effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly extraction alternative to the gold mining sector.

“Thousands of gold mines around the world rely on gravity-based concentration. This bulk test demonstrates that many of these mine operations could benefit from our eco-friendly extraction alternative.

“The adoption of the EnviroLeach process could reduce the industry’s reliance on the conventional cyanide and smelting methods used today and contribute to environmental sustainability across the gold mining sector.”