Tag Archives: Ivor Bryan

Draslovka’s glycine leaching tech to be tested on gold, nickel tailings at Windarra

Base metals, Environmental, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mining services, Precious metals, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , ,

Draslovka a.s. subsidiary Encore Minerals, a company established with the specific aim of progressing waste to value opportunities, has entered into an agreement with Poseidon Nickel to retreat and monetise gold and nickel tailings in Western Australia.

Draslovka’s proprietary Glycine Leaching Technology (GLT), comprising the GlyCat™ process for precious metals and GlyLeach™ process for base metals, will be an enabler for the extraction of
realisable value from Poseidon’s gold and nickel tailings at its Windarra property and potentially from a third-party tailings resource at nearby Lancefield (the Windarra Tailings project), Draslovka says.

Previous metallurgical test work for the Windarra Tailings project had shown potential improvement in recoveries and costs for the site’s gold resources. The test work also established the potential for a technical, economically viable and low-intensity process for recovery of nickel from nickel tailings. A previous feasibility study for the gold resource using conventional cyanidation showed net operating cash flow of A$30.6 million ($19.9 million), a net present value (8% discount) of A$21.7 million and an internal rate of return of 50.6%, assuming a gold price of A$2,500/oz.

The next step is to undertake a technical program to optimise the project with both the gold and nickel resources, which will lead to an updated feasibility study and a final investment decision. If
successful, the project will lead to the construction of the first GLT processing plant for tailings.

Ivor Bryan, Chief Technology Officer of Draslovka Mining Process Solutions, said: “We are excited to play an integral role in enabling the retreatment of the gold and nickel tailings at the Windarra Tailings project by supplying GLT, which has been developed to extract precious and base metals.

“GLT is revolutionary for the mining industry. It has the potential to save mining companies billions of dollars by significantly reducing processing costs, enhancing a mine’s sustainability profile, extending mine life by lowering the cut-off grade and unlocking value hidden in a mine’s tailings. I believe the results at Windarra will be a powerful example of how GLT is a simple yet very effective means to retreat and monetise tailings.”

Bayan Airag Exploration achieves world first with Draslovka’s glycine leaching tech

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Draslovka a.s., a specialty chemicals company, has executed a user license with Bayan Airag Exploration LLC in Mongolia for the world’s first application of its proprietary glycine gold leaching process, GlyCat™, in a commercial heap leaching application.

Application of the technology has commenced to extract gold from ores mined from its Golden Hills and Limestone Ridge pits.

The decision to fully implement the technology on its heap leach operations was made following site-based testing and culminating in a 1,000-tonne trial heap leach, according to Draslovka. The collaboration involved staff from Draslovka’s Perth-based mining innovation centre and Bayan Airag site-based staff.

The recent heap leach trial demonstrated higher recoveries than conventional cyanidation, with 78% overall gold recovery, the company said. This was achieved with a 65% reduction in cyanide and high recyclability of the glycine. Overall, due to high cyanide unit costs, the total reagent costs are projected to be reduced by over 70%.

The Bayan Airag mines are located in a part of Mongolia where temperatures are regularly sub-zero, making the trial and forward commercial application of the technology of interest to other cold climate applications globally.

Ivor Bryan, Chief Technology Officer of Draslovka Mining Solutions, said: “GlyCat’s use in heap leaching applications demonstrates equivalent or better recoveries and step change reduction in operating costs. This provides opportunities for our clients to extend mine life and convert uneconomic ores and wastes into viable metal production opportunities.

“We look forward to expanding our strong relationship with Bayan Airag as it considers other projects in its area of operations and as a foundation for further applications in Mongolia.”

Peter Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of Bayan Airag, added: “At Bayan Airag where we often have challenges in cyanide supply and costs, we saw the GlyCat process as an opportunity to reduce our reliance on cyanide and to use a much more eco-friendly alternative that provides sustainability to our Mongolian business and improved outcomes to the community in which we work. It also gives us an advantage for when we encounter high levels of copper in our gold-silver ore.

“We are proud that the Bayan Airag mine is the first mine in Mongolia to use GlyCat and the first instance of commercial implementation of GlyCat in a heap leach anywhere in the world.”

Draslovka to bring glycine leaching expertise to OZ Minerals TAD incubator

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Draslovka Holding a.s., a Czech family-owned global leader in cyanide-based specialty chemicals, says its glycine leaching technology has been selected to be part of the OZ Minerals’ Think & Act Differently (TAD) incubator and Waste-to-Value Challenge.

The latter challenge, announced back in December, sees Rio Tinto and Boliden working in collaboration with OZ Minerals to eliminate, minimise, reuse or find new value in mine tailings and ultimately reduce the global carbon footprint of the mining industry. Draslovka said: “The Waste-to-Value Challenge aims to unlock innovative technologies for managing tailings, helping the mining industry to reduce risk while extracting more of the materials the world needs from what was previously regarded as waste for the energy transition at large. Benefits that the initiative hopes to deliver include lower emissions and reduced waste.”

Draslovka offers a range of sustainable solutions to the global mining industry, and its glycine leaching technology (branded as its GlyLeach™ and GlyCat™ processes) represents the best environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional acid and cyanide leaching, according to the company. Due to its selectivity over gangue minerals and the recyclability of glycine, its use enables the recovery of both base and precious metals from lower-grade resources like tailings. This leads to a more sustainable production process and improved economics that are desperately needed to close the looming critical metal supply deficit.

Ivor Bryan, Draslovka’s Mining Innovation Director, said: “I am proud that Draslovka has been invited to participate in the Waste-to-Value Challenge with forward looking companies that understand the need to reimagine solutions for the mining industry. This aligns with our ambition to become the leading supplier for innovative and sustainable solutions for the wider mining industry.”

Speaking to IM on the sidelines of the recent Resourcing Tomorrow conference, in London, Bryan said the company was embarking on around 10 projects in the mining space, which will prove up the 3,500 hours of testing that has been conducted at MPS’ facilities in Perth, Western Australia.

Draslovka about to move into glycine leaching mining demonstration phase

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Czech Republic-based Draslovka Holding is heading into a busy 12-month period where its glycine leaching technology will be showcased at numerous mining projects across the globe, the company told IM on the side lines of the Resourcing Tomorrow conference, in London, this week.

According to Ivor Bryan, Director of Mining Innovation at Draslovka Mining Solutions and the former MD of Mining & Process Solutions (MPS), the entity responsible for the development of the GlyCat™ and GlyLeach™ technologies, the company is embarking on around 10 projects in the mining space, which will prove up the 3,500 hours of testing that has been conducted at MPS’ facilities in Perth, Western Australia.

MPS was acquired by Draslovka, a major sodium cyanide producer in 2022, with the aim of the transaction being to grow and develop the glycine leaching business.

Gold leach testing via GlyCat has been the major area of focus over the last decade. The process was invented to reduce cyanide consumption while maintaining gold recovery for gold ores from deposits containing nuisance copper. It has been designed to enhance the dissolution of gold and copper in gold/copper ores where glycine is used as a catalyst with cyanide in a cyanide-starved leaching environment. It doesn’t replace cyanide, but, in fact, enhances its leaching capabilities by dealing with the high-cyanide consuming copper within these gold-copper orebodies.

Yet, the company is also now starting to make inroads into the base metal space through GlyLeach, with nickel and cobalt two specific areas of interest. The technology is able to leach the targeted metals with enhanced selectivity compared with conventional methods. It will solubilise copper, nickel, cobalt and zinc, while gangue minerals such as iron, manganese, silicates and carbonates remain in the leach residue, Draslovka says.

This is allowing the company to promote that it can reduce the capital expenditure associated with processing these metals by removing the need for smelting, or in the case of tailings deposits, helping recover metal from assets previously written off as ‘waste’.

While the technology could have applications at run of mine operations, Bryan and his colleague Jackson Briggs, Corporate Development Manager of Draslovka, believe the most immediate opportunity is in tailings where the application of glycine leaching on ‘waste’ material could recover valuable metals while reducing the potential liabilities associated with such storage facilities.

Of the 10 or so projects the company has ahead of it, one is situated in Western Australia where the company is looking to recover nickel and cobalt metals from a tailings deposit of a major mining company.

Another project – much closer to fruition – is in Chile and involves leaching a carbonate-hosted copper oxide deposit containing some 600 t of material.

In both cases, the company is looking to demonstrate that it can recover valuable metals at high recovery rates, with low impact – namely rationalising reagent and water use and, in the case of nickel-cobalt, removing smelting from the equation.

This, according to Draslovka CEO, Pavel Bruzek, is a “win-win” for mining companies and their stakeholders, benefitting both the balance sheet and the operational environmental footprint.

“While we are a major sodium cyanide producer, when we saw the potential of MPS’ glycine leaching technology and the increase in metallurgical complexity of orebodies looking to be exploited, it made perfect sense to work with and promote this technology,” he told IM. “It is the responsible thing to do for the industry.”

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

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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.