-REVOLUTIONIZING ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION:
We are transforming the way we clean up the environment. With the help of our bugs, we bring meaning to the idea of “green metal” by recovering metals while improving the surrounding environment in the process.
Our Bugs Eat Rocks!
Our technology, bioleaching, uses naturally-occurring bacteria to neutralize toxic mining sites and allows for environmentally-friendly processing in the mining industry.
Bandaid solutions to potential environmental disasters shouldn’t be the norm. We cure the patient: Bioleaching has the power to return hazardous sites to their natural state rather than just covering up toxic waste. What does this mean for the public? Healthier habitats for living beings.
-BIOLEACHING:
Our technology, bioleaching, uses naturally-occurring bacteria to neutralize toxic mining sites and allows for environmentally-friendly processing in the mining industry.
-Basic Overview:
BacTech’s core technology, bioleaching, uses naturally-occurring bacteria, harmless to both humans and the environment, to oxidize the sulphide materials left behind after years of mining, and separate metal from the difficult-to-process tailings.
The tailings we target contain ores and related materials contaminated by arsenic and other substances that are poisonous to humans and animals, as well as harmful to the local environment. The sulphides in these tailings react (oxidize) with the atmosphere to create an acidic solution called acid rock drainage (“ARD”), which seeps into the surrounding area over time.
BacTech’s bioleaching process can stabilize these toxins from minerals and prevent additional harmful ARD. The technology provides a “Garden of Eden” environment for the bacteria to thrive and multiply and permits them to achieve in 6 days what would normally take 20 years to occur naturally.
The tailings created by bioleaching are benign, and zero environmental damage occurs as a result of the process. An added bonus is its ability to recover valuable metals such as gold, silver, cobalt and nickel that remain in the tailings.
-CURRENT PROJECTS:
BacTech is continually exploring opportunities to affect environmental remediation of tailings. Our current pursuits have taken us to Ecuador where there is a significant opportunity to address environmental degradation and health issues.
-Pursuits and Viability:
Our technology of choice is, of course, bioleaching. However we’re always interested in learning about projects that use conventional, “off-the -shelf” technology. Over the past year the Company has been approached by third parties for potential projects in Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia in addition to Company searches in the US and Canada.
Of these, Ecuador has become a country of major interest given the high levels of arsenic in the concentrates and tailings produced by small miners. Our interest in South America largely stems from BacTech’s ability to treat materials that are currently being subjected to mercury treatment - a process which is known to have serious repercussions to the environment, and to the health of living beings.
A lot of time and cost goes into determining the viability of an opportunity.The presence of a decent gold grade does not necessarily ensure the viability of project development, as we saw in our Manitoba pursuit. Outside factors, such as a lack of iron in the concentrate, can prevent our ability to make a stable ferric arsenate, or how the lack of local limestone required for neutralization made the Snow Lake project unfeasible.
The projects in Bolivia and Ecuador offer true promise and we’re hopeful that our investigations and test work will lead to the development of both.
-Company History:
BMC was founded in 1988, with its origin in Western Australia, incorporated in Ontario, Canada in mid 1997, and went public in September of the same year. In 2010 BacTech Mining Corporation changed its name to REBgold Corporation under the above-noted Plan of Arrangement, and will continue to use bioleaching technology to identify mining assets where its’ technology can be employed.
REBgold owns proprietary bacterial oxidation technology that liberates precious and base metals from difficult-to-treat sulphide ores and concentrates. Bacterial oxidation is a safe and environmentally-friendly process. It has the advantage of improving metal recovery at significantly lower capital and operating costs when compared to traditional treatment methods of smelting, roasting and pressure oxidation. REBgold is the only company in the world that has commercially-proven bioleaching technology for gold and for base metal separation.
As part of the Plan of Arrangement, REBgold and BEC entered into an agreement whereby REBgold licensed its bioleaching technology to BacTech Environmental to be used perpetually, exclusively, and royalty free, in the remediation of mine tailings. Recently, BacTech and REBgold agreed to let BacTech have access to the technology for mining-related projects in exchange for a 1% net smelter royalty (“NSR”). This was done to allow BacTech to process ore from artisanal miners in South America who have historically been using mercury to recover gold.
BacTech Environmental will now focus its strategy on environmental remediation services to address the worldwide arsenic problem. This decision was based on the global demand for the remediation of mining areas and the benefit of owning equity interests in such projects, versus the external licensing of the bioleaching technology.
BacTech Environmental will strive to secure an equity position in each project, which will be augmented by additional cash flow related to metal recovery. Where possible, the Company will partner with national and local governments, and non-governmental organizations, to fund portions of the projects.
-RESEARCH AT LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY:
Spearheaded by Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk at Laurentian University, our test work is carried at laboratories in Sudbury, Ontario. This partnership is supported through government grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Ontario Centres of Excellence and is invaluable to the work we do.
-Our Values:
Mining will continue as we need metal in our day to day lives. As a result there will always be a need to conduct mining as responsibly as possible. Unsafe mining methods increasingly lead to the degradation of the environment and health of living beings: we saw a need for a paradigm shift away from traditional mining practices. Bandaid methods to treat mine tailings aren’t effective long term and large quantities of metals go unrecovered. Our solution to these problems uses nature’s bugs: bacteria that does the job of recovering metals and healing the environment.
-BIOLEACHING:
Our technology, bioleaching, uses naturally-occurring bacteria to neutralize toxic mining sites and allows for environmentally-friendly processing in the mining industry.
-Basic Overview:
BacTech’s core technology, bioleaching, uses naturally-occurring bacteria, harmless to both humans and the environment, to oxidize the sulphide materials left behind after years of mining, and separate metal from the difficult-to-process tailings.
The tailings we target contain ores and related materials contaminated by arsenic and other substances that are poisonous to humans and animals, as well as harmful to the local environment. The sulphides in these tailings react (oxidize) with the atmosphere to create an acidic solution called acid rock drainage (“ARD”), which seeps into the surrounding area over time.
BacTech’s bioleaching process can stabilize these toxins from minerals and prevent additional harmful ARD. The technology provides a “Garden of Eden” environment for the bacteria to thrive and multiply and permits them to achieve in 6 days what would normally take 20 years to occur naturally.
The tailings created by bioleaching are benign, and zero environmental damage occurs as a result of the process. An added bonus is its ability to recover valuable metals such as gold, silver, cobalt and nickel that remain in the tailings.
-Summary Of Advantages:
-Economic:
Remediation of tailings at no cost to government
Revenues through the recovery of contained metals — Au, Ag, Cu, Ni, Zn, Co, Pb
Local opportunities for work, training, development and the start of a new ‘green metal’ industry
Lower cost than the alternatives (e.g. pressure oxidation) and requires less capital
Easy to expand to accommodate tailings from many types of mines within a region
-Environmental:
The bacteria are naturally occurring and harmless to the environment and human health
What is being treated is the actual source of acid generation and not the symptoms
Prevention of future Acid Mine Drainage through sulphide neutralization
Toxic heavy metals, like arsenic, are converted into stable, environmentally benign products
No gaseous emissions (e.g. S02,As203)
Efficient reuse of water from the process
Reduction in use of mercury by artisanal miners
- Technical:
The technology is already commercially proven
BacTech has “in-house” capacity for the design, construction and operation of the plant
It is a continuous process which is safe, easy to operate and flexible
Scalable in a short period of time and capable of processing a wide variety of low to high grade mine tailings
BacTech Environmental Corporation. is traded on the OTC under the ticker symbol BCCEF. This is not investment advice. Please view the disclaimer found on this website.
