Builds on patent filed in April for Pyrrhotite Process

BacTech Environmental Corporation (CSE: BAC) (OTCQB: BCCEF) announced that it has filed a provisional patent application to expand its zero-waste processing technology beyond bioleaching. This new application builds on a full patent application submitted in April, which focused on treating iron and acid streams from bioleaching. The Company considers this development to have the potential to improve mineral processing operations by enabling the recovery of materials from waste, which may contribute to more sustainable practices.

Over the next year, BacTech will seek potential industry partners to test and develop this technology across different platforms, with the goal of moving toward a full patent.

Acidic iron streams are a common by-product of mineral processing. These are usually treated to neutralize acidity, often creating waste sludge. BacTech’s zero-waste method offers a new way to treat these streams by recovering valuable materials and turning iron and acid into marketable products.

Instead of using traditional neutralizing materials, BacTech’s patented process uses ammonia, which is gaining importance in the green economy. This method allows for the production of clean, usable iron and fertilizer products and helps recover other valuable, contained metals.

Using ammonia requires smaller amounts of neutralizing agent and less infrastructure. BacTech’s process also helps conserve water, preventing it from getting trapped in sludge. The treated water is cleaner and easier to manage according to environmental standards.

This next generation of BacTech’s zero-waste processing technology does not rely on bioleaching and is possibly suitable for a wide range of mineral processing applications aimed at recovering iron and acid from waste streams. The technology potentially can be retrofitted to various types of operations, including copper and nickel sulphide processing, nickel laterite processing, heap and dump leaching for base metal recovery, heavy mineral sands processing, phosphoric acid production, rare earth element leaching, manganese and uranium leaching, as well as refractory gold pressure oxidation and oxidative leach processes.

The technology can also potentially treat ongoing acidic runoff from old mine sites. BacTech’s method turns these waste streams into valuable products like iron and fertilizer, while also producing clean water. This is a major improvement over methods that result in waste that must be managed long-term.

In addition, BacTech’s innovation has the potential to unlock new heap leaching opportunities for low-grade metal recovery that were previously deemed uneconomical. Historically, such processes were inhibited by the generation of large volumes of acidic, iron-laden solutions that required costly neutralization with lime or limestone and extensive waste impoundment. This limitation has been especially problematic for the pre-treatment heap leaching of low-grade refractory gold ores prior to gold extraction, due to the prohibitive costs associated with managing soluble iron and acid using traditional reagents

Finally, BacTech’s approach opens the door to economically recovering metals from low-grade ores that were previously considered uneconomical. In the past, treatment was limited by the need to manage large volumes of acidic, iron-rich solutions. BacTech’s technology reduces these challenges and makes it easier to recover metals from more sources.

About BacTech Environmental Corporation

BacTech Environmental Corporation is a company that specializes in environmental technology. We use a process called bioleaching to recover metals like gold, silver, cobalt, nickel, and copper, while also safely removing harmful contaminants like arsenic. This process is eco-friendly and uses naturally occurring bacteria that are safe for both humans and the environment. By using our proprietary method of bioleaching, we can neutralize toxic concentrates and tailings while also creating profitable opportunities. Recently BacTech filed a patent on the treatment of pyrrhotite tailings producing magnetite, organic fertilizer and critical metals.