PDAC JV Video: Dundee Sustainable’s CLEVR chemistry cuts gold extraction time to an hour

Household chemicals could change gold extraction, especially where cyanide is banned, Dundee Sustainable Technologies (CSE: DST) CEO Jean-Phillipe Mai said.

Dundee’s Chlorination Leach in a Vat Reactor (CLEVR) process shuns toxic cyanide in favour of a simple chemical – household bleach – to quickly dissolve gold in acidic conditions. This approach cuts extraction time to an hour from one day, slashing plant footprints and lowering infrastructure costs. The GlassLock process safely stabilizes arsenic from mining waste.

“The earlier companies assess our solutions’ effectiveness at their projects the more benefit they can potentially extract form using the technologies,” Mai told The Northern Miner last week during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s annual convention in Toronto.

Major miners and advanced project developers, including players like Newmont (NYSE: NEM, TSX: NGT), have shown interest. With plans to break ground on GlassLock plant in Africa this year, Dundee aims to prove its model at scale in the field.

Watch the full conversation with The Northern Miner’s western editor, Henry Lazenby:

Joint venture videos are paid-for content in arrangement with The Northern Miner.