Business
BacTech Environmental Team to Advance Sudbury Pilot Plant Development for Nickel-Cobalt and Green Iron Recovery
Company announces intent to respond to Canadian Government call for critical mineral development proposals; Anticipates pilot plant will be operational this sum
About this update from Bactech Environmental Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":"Company announces intent to respond to Canadian Government call for critical mineral development proposals; Anticipates pilot plant will be operational this summer TORONTO, ON – TheNewswire - May 18, 2022 – BacTech Environmental Corporation (CSE:BAC), (OTC:BCCEF), (FSE:0BT1) (“BacTech” or the “Company”), a commercially proven, environmental technology company delivering eco-friendly bioleaching and remediation solutions for precious metal and critical mineral recovery, is pleased to provide an update with respect to the Company’s proposed pyrrhotite bioleaching initiative for nickel, cobalt, sulphur, and iron waste recovery. Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk, a leader in biomining technology, member of BacTech’s advisory board and Interim CEO and President of MIRARCO Mining Innovation, is leading the development and building of a bioleach pilot plant to be located in Sudbury, Canada. Working closely with BacTech’s scientific team, the plant is for the testing of bioleaching processes like the Company’s proposed approach for pyrrhotite treatment. The pilot plant will simulate a commercial bioleach process consisting of a cascade of reactors operating on a continuous basis. The plant will also include front and back-end equipment operating as separate units for capturing additional revenue sources beyond nickel-cobalt (e.g., elemental sulphur; iron as feed for steel making and oxidised residue conversion for construction materials). The proposed pilot plant is expected to be operational by July 2022. One reactor has been 100% completed to date and is being used to test select concentrates from BacTech’s Tenguel project. On April 7, 2022, BacTech announced it had filed a provisional patent application documenting its proposed approach to bioleaching pyrrhotite materials. Pyrrhotite is a very volatile sulphide mineral containing nickel and cobalt values that oxidizes rapidly and produces large amounts of iron and sulphur components as by-products which are typically considered as wastes. The pilot plant is part of Dr. Mykytczuk’s larger effort to establish the future Centre for Mine Waste Biotechnology, a facility focussed on scale-up and commercialization of biotechnologies to help extract value and reduce impacts from mine wastes. The object is to use this pilot facility to obtain the design data necessary to establish a fully integ...