TORONTO - BIOTEQ ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES has been awarded a second development project with COLUMBIA METALS CORP., also of Toronto. The contract calls for building a water treatment plant at Columbia's Lluvia de Oro gold property in Sonora, Mexico.
The water treatment technology is a new application of BioteQ's sulphur reduction technologies. BioteQ will provide plants for the regeneration of free and copper-complexed cyanide from barren solutions, which can then be recycled in the gold mill. In addition, the technology converts copper cyanide complexes to copper sulphide, which is then recovered as a byproduct.
This is the second development agreement BioteQ has entered into with Columbia. The first was for a water treatment plant at Columbia's La Jojoba gold mine. The commercial agreement for La Jojoba provides for the joint development of the process during the engineering stages, followed by a build-own-operate commercial structure whereby BioteQ will own the treatment plant in return for metals recovered and fees charged for cyanide regeneration.
BioteQ's technology is an improvement on the SART process developed by SGS LAKEFIELD RESEARCH, and is used by permission. Many of the known large gold deposits in the world are complexed with copper, and some occur as copper-gold porphyry deposits. The new technology offers a cost-effective route to recover the gold using a conventional cyanide system and at the same time recover cyanide-soluble copper that ordinarily would pose a technical, environmental and economic impediment to the development of some of these large copper-gold systems.
Visit www.BioteQ.ca for technical details about BioteQ's expertise.
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