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BacTech Environmental (CNSX:BAC) is exploring non-traditional means to raise capital in order to kickstart the clean up of the 100-year-old Telemayu mill site in Bolivia
BacTech aims to address the issue using its bioleaching technology, which can process the toxic tailings and permanently cure the problem. Ross Orr, the company’s CEO, explained that BacTech plans to remove the sulfide and heavy metal elements from the pile and introduce them to the bioleaching system. The system is a series of very large stainless tanks where the materials are suspended in liquid along with the sulfide-eating bacteria.
“What we do is pluck the sulfides out of the tailings, oxidize them, recover the metals and then return the spent material, which tends to be ferric-arsenate — a benign, USCPA-approved end product for arsenic,” Orr explained.
Why Telemayu?
The degradation at the Telemayu site was obvious, according to Orr. “I was standing out on the [tailings] pile and there was a pool of turquoise water, which means that you’ve got acid and copper together,” he said.
With the added benefit of infrastructure, including access to Peru via rail and power, Telemayu was a perfect site for BacTech’s technology. Through a 50/50 memorandum of understanding with state-owned Corporación Minera de Bolivia (Comibol), BacTech is able to carry out its test work on Telemayu; if it returns positive results, the company can export the concentrate out of Bolivia and into Peru for processing.
The tailings at the Telemayu site contain about 22 million ounces of silver and about 45,000 tons of copper.
Why crowdfunding?
Orr admits that Bolivia is neither the easiest jurisdiction in which to conduct business, nor an easy place to raise money for, especially for resource development. With the tough financing climate in the junior resource sector, BacTech decided to get creative in order to deliver on its commitment to the Bolivian government.
“We’re going out there to try and make the lives of indigenous people in Bolivia better, for people that really had no say in the mine development that happened 50 or 60 years ago,” he explained.
BacTech’s crowdfunding campaign is aimed at remediating the Telamayu tailings site at no cost to the government or nearby community. In order to meet this goal, the company must meet its funding target of $30,000 to “conduct all the necessary assaying, flotation and bioleach testwork to determine if the project is viable.”
If BacTech deems the Telemayu clean up viable, it will reach out to ethical and socially responsible cleantech and impact investment sources to finance a full-scale remediation project.
Learn more about the BacTech’s campaign here.
Securities Disclosure: I, Vivien Diniz, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.