BacTech 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 summer
BacTech 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 summer
TORONTO, ON, 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 fac ility to
obtain the design data necessary to establish a fully integrated tonnage-based demonstration plant,
which would then lead towards full-scale commercialisation . The production of value -added
materials from the iron and sulphur and oxidised residue, which would normally be disposed as
wastes, differentiate this process from other pyrrhotite bioleach endeavours which only target
nickel and cobalt production.
On May 11, 2022, the Canadian government announced a $10.9M fund to assist with the
construction of pilot plants and projects to support the development of critical mineral value
chains. T he Sudbury Basin hosts up to 100M tonnes of pyrrhotite tailings deposite d over the past
90 years of mining estimated to contain on average 0.80% nickel and 0.03% cobalt. This puts the
in-situ value for nickel at US$22 billion alone (current market price of Ni @ US$27,000/t). Nickel
is a metal of increasing strategic value and in high demand due to its use in clean energy
technologies. *
“We are very happy to see the government stepping up and providing capital for pilot stage plants
in the critical metals space,” said Ross Orr, President and CEO of BacTech. “This is probably the
most difficult capital to obtain at the R&D stage , as the demands are much greater than a typical
lab set -up. We will definitely be answering the Canadian Government’s call for proposals. In
addition to reactors and other equipment, we need to conduct studies on the pre-bioleach phase as
well as recovery of metals from solution at the back-end.”
The Company’s R&D pursuits radically differ from other technical groups ’ attempts to
commercialize pyrrhotite tails treatment that have traditionally focused on reducing the cost of
nickel recovery to create favourable economics. BacTech ’s scientific path is to develop an
innovative zero- carbon liberation and extraction approach to separating iron from its ore, in
addition to optimizing nickel -cobalt recovery efforts. BacTech believes its method answers the
need raised by the Canadian G overnment and to accelerate the sustainable extraction and
processing of critical minerals from existing mine tailings and invest in domestic production.
“Providing the solution to the complex pyrrhotite issue in the Sudbury Basin would be a
tremendous win for BacTech and its sharehold ers. Having c ompleted an applicable year -long
bioleach study with great results some 20 years ago gives us the confidence that we can succeed .
The complimentary technologies that we hope to now use were not available to us back in the late
1990s and should allow us to commercialize and sell multiple end -products derived from the
pyrrhotite source,” Orr concluded.
About BacTech Environmental Corporation
BacTech is a proven environmental technology company, delivering effective and eco -friendly
bioleaching and remediation solutions to commercial operations to process and recover preferred
metals (gold, silver, cobalt, nickel and copper) smartly and safely remove and transform harmful
contaminants like arsenic into benign EPA-approved products for landfill. Tapping into numerous
environmental and economic advantages of its proprietary method of bioleaching, BacTech uses
naturally occurring bacteria, harmless to both humans and the environment, to neutralize toxic
mining sites with high -pay potential. BacTech is publicly traded on the CSE under the symbol
“BAC”; on the OTC as “BCCEF”; and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as “0BT1”.
For further information contact:
Ross Orr
President & CEO, BacTech Environmental Corporation
416-813-0303 ext. 222,
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://bactechgreen.com/
Investor Presentation: https://bactechgreen.com/investors/
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*Sources:
• https://www.iea.org/reports/the-ro le-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-
transitions/mineral-requirements-for-clean-energy-transitions
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0892687510002827
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/SrinathGarg/publication/305043776_MINERALO
GICAL_CHARACTERIZATION_OF_SUDBURY_PYRRHOTITE_TAILINGS_EVALUATING_THE_B
IOLEACHING_POTENTIAL/links/577fbc8408ae01f736e492b7/MINERALOGICAL-
CHARACTERIZATION-OF-SUDBURY-PYRRHOTITE-TAILINGS-EVALUATING-THE-
BIOLEACHING-POTENTIAL.pdf
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains “forward-looking information”, which may include, but is not limited to, statements with
respect to future tailings sites, sampling or other investigations of tailing sites, the Company’s ability to make use of
infrastructure around tailings sites or operating performance of the Company and its projects. Often, but not always,
forward-looking statements can be identified using words such as “plans”, “expects”, “is expected”, “budget”,
“scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates”, or believes” or variations (including negative
variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might”
or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties
and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially
different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward- looking
statements. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and the Company
disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether because of
new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management’s estimates or opinions should change, or
otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward -looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and
future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned
not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Shares outstanding: 172,025,558
The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the
accuracy of the contents of this release.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the shares, nor is it a
solicitation of interest from a prospective investor.