We'll mine Tres Estados and Ema for gold, silver and PGMs one day. Right now our REEs are the immediate priority because it's the fastest path to profitable production. There's other metallurgical solutions out there. Here's one example of some great tech that uses heap leaching:
pH7 Technologies, a Canadian startup founded in 2020, is poised to provide a key pathway to reliable and sustainable metal sourcing and revolutionize the industry with its environmentally friendly extraction method that addresses metal extraction challenges head-on.pH7 Technologies has developed a sustainable, proprietary closed-loop extraction method that operates at low temperatures, addressing the challenges faced in metal recycling and mining.
With a PGM recycling pilot operating daily and a commercial plant soon to come online, pH7’s process consumes 84% less energy, 98% less water, and produces no NOx and SOx emissions compared to existing extraction approaches.
The innovative PGM extraction platform offered by pH7 has numerous advantages over traditional pyrometallurgy processes. It eliminates the need for toxic or hazardous reagents, is capable of handling PGM substrates with high melting points such as SiC, Zr, Ti, and fluorinated compounds, and boasts an impressive recovery rate and purity. Furthermore, the scalability of the process, facilitated by fast reaction kinetics, simple process flow, accessible reagents, and no aqueous discharge, has caught the attention of major PGM catalyst manufacturers, traders, and recyclers, who have signed commercial agreements to supply substantial quantities of end-of-life PGMs to pH7 for treatment.
pH7 is developing a closed-loop extraction process to extract copper from both e-waste and low-grade ores. When dealing with e-waste, pH7 has demonstrated 95%+ copper recovery at mild operating conditions. The process is also effective in recovering other important metals in e-waste, including gold, silver, PGMs, nickel, and tin.
As for low-grade copper ores, pH7 is designing a closed-loop, electrochemical organic extraction system applied to heap leaching of chalcopyrite ores and tailings to overcome the kinetic bottleneck of existing methods that use an acid solution and an oxidizing agent or bioleaching.
The reagent in pH7’s process is recovered and reused, which leads to a low-cost, sustainable copper extraction process. pH7 Technologies offers an innovative and sustainable solution to the critical challenges faced in the extraction and recycling of PGM and copper. The revolutionary organic electrochemical extraction method not only reduces the environmental footprint but also provides higher recovery rates and scalability.
With its game-changing technology, pH7 Technologies is set to become a vital player in the global effort to secure the supply of critical metals for the energy transition, while mitigating the environmental and geopolitical concerns that have plagued traditional extraction methods.
