VANCOUVER, B.C.– BioteQ Environmental Technologies, Inc. (TSX: BQE), a leader in the treatment of industrial waste water, has signed a contract for process design services with Koza Gold for a SART plant at the Mastra gold mine site in Turkey. BioteQ will complete the design services within a 12 week period, on a fee basis plus disbursements. When the design work is complete, Koza Gold has the option to extend BioteQ’s contract to provide plant supply, commissioning, and operating services.
Brad Marchant, BioteQ’s Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We are pleased to be working with our new customer, Koza Gold, applying our proven expertise in SART process design. This enabling technology can change the project economics for gold projects that are associated with copper-complexed deposits.”
The Mastra site is a gold mine located near Gumushane,Turkey. The ore body is rich in cyanide soluble copper, which can potentially interfere with the metallurgical process to extract gold. SART technology (sulphidization-acidification-recycle-thickening) will be applied at the site to recover copper from the gold leach solution, and regenerate cyanide for recycle back to the gold leach operation. The process is expected to improve gold yields, reduce site operating costs for Koza Gold, and enhance the overall sustainability profile of the mine by minimizing the use of cyanide in gold leaching, reducing the risk of potential long term environmental liability associated with copper and cyanide laden waste, and improving overall resource recovery by turning copper contained in waste into a high grade copper by-product that can be sold to generate an incremental revenue source.
Many of the known large gold deposits in the world are in copper-complexed ore bodies. The SART process, developed by SGS Lakefield and Teck Corporation and used by BioteQ with permission, can be combined with BioteQ’s sulphide technologies to provide a cost-effective method to recover gold using a conventional cyanide system, while at the same time removing cyanide soluble copper that would otherwise pose a technical, environmental, and economic impediment to the development of some of these large gold sites.
BioteQ has successfully applied its sulphide precipitation technology with the SART process at the Lluvia de Oro gold mine site in Mexico. The plant has been proven to recover a high grade copper concentrate, and recycle up to 95 percent of the cyanide for re-use in gold extraction.
BioteQ Corporate Profile
BioteQ is a water treatment company that applies innovative technologies and operating expertise to solve challenging water treatment problems, reducing environmental liabilities while delivering lower life cycle costs for water treatment. The Company’s commercially proven technologies treat industrial wastewater contaminated with dissolved heavy metals and sulphate, producing saleable by-products and clean water that can be discharged safely to the environment. BioteQ has built 8 plants at sites in Canada, the US, China, Australia and Mexico, with additional projects in design and construction.
BioteQ has been named one of Canada’s Top 50 Most Socially Responsible Corporations by Jantzi Research and Maclean’s, and the company’s sustainable water treatment solutions have been recognized with the Globe Award for Environmental Excellence, the PDAC Award for Environmental and Social Responsibility, the China Mining Environmental Protection Award, and the Mines & Money Sustainable Development Award. BioteQ is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, and trades on the TSX under the symbol BQE. For additional information, please go to www.bqewater.com.
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On behalf of the Board of Directors
Brad Marchant
The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of this release.