EnviroGold Global Limited has announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase an integrated metal processing plant developed at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) Australian Minerals Research Centre in Perth, Western Australia.
The plant includes: multiple cascading mixed acid leach tanks, a Counter Current Decantation (CCD) system, residue neutralisation and filtration, acid recovery, and iron hydrolysis to enable production of magnetite co-product. The CCD system is used to separate post leach slurry from the fully encapsulated Pipe Reactor into pregnant leach solution and washed acid insoluble residue.
Originally developed by the CSIRO for research into the recovery of high purity nickel and cobalt battery metals via solvent extraction, the plant is ideally suited, with minor modification, to demonstrate the NVRO Clean Leach Process at scale. The plant will be relocated and installed at the EnviroGold Clean Leach demonstration facility in Brisbane, Australia.
The plant is now surplus to CSIRO requirements, can process up to 15 t per day of mine tailings, milled ore or smelter waste, and is ideal to showcase the NVRO Clean Leach Process on a small commercial scale with multiple customers already expressing interest to move from lab scale to pilot scale trials. The cost and time savings in acquiring a proven demonstration plant will significantly accelerate the EnviroGold go to market strategy.
As previously disclosed, the Company intends to transport tailings from the mine sites of its customers to the EnviroGold Clean Leach demonstration facility, where it will process the tailings and provide independent analysis of the technical and economic outcomes. The Company expects that the availability of operating data will be sufficient for customers to complete Bankable Feasibility Studies and enter into commercial licence agreements with EnviroGold for full scale production.
EnviroGold CEO, David Cam said, “The procurement of the demonstration plant is coming together at a time of heightened interest in mine closure liabilities, tailings reprocessing, and environmental remediation. As demand for strategic and precious metals continues to increase, EnviroGold is now well positioned to accelerate the monetisation of its Clean Leach Process and leverage its expertise to expand its customer base.”