BBX Minerals advances sustainable mineral extraction with bioleaching testing

Brazilian-focused precious metals explorer BBX Minerals (ASX: BBX) has unveiled the next steps in testing of a bioleaching process that uses natural microbial techniques to extract the minerals in a sustainable way.

The company today told the ASX it was sending 200 kilograms of material from four drill holes to EcoBiome Metals LLC for further pilot testing and optimisation.

“The goal is to conduct additional tests now that several enhancements have been made following the initial pilot plant testing announced in late February,” the company said.

Initial pilot plant work demonstrated the suitability of the bioleaching process, with the further tests expected to improve on these results until extraction is fully optimised.

The company expects this to happen by no later than the third (September) quarter of 2023.

Further bioleaching pilot testing

Currently, the improvement process is being carried out at EcoBiome’s facility in The Woodlands, Texas, where EcoBiome has designed and commissioned a dedicated pilot plant designed to simulate a potential production circuit.

After that, BBX plans to build its own pilot plant near its existing laboratory in Catalao, Brazil.

BBX is focused on the Apuí region in Amazonas state in Brazil’s southern Amazon region, where the company believes there’s high potential to discover world-class gold, platinum group metals (PGM) and base metal deposits. The company’s key assets are the Três Estados PGM and Ema gold projects.

The bioleaching process is a compatible and sustainable way to extract precious metals naturally. While the primary purpose of the process is to extract PGM economically from Três Estados, the envisaged pilot plant will test an existing 13-tonne sample from the Ema project.

While the plant will contribute to the operating and cost efficiencies of process recoveries, its main purpose will be to enable better analysis of the metal. This will help to determine the best markets for the products.

Testing to begin in June quarter

The company will initiate bioleaching testing of the drill holes in a “controlled environment”. This will include initial testing of drill holes from the Três Estados mineral resource estimate, followed by drill holes from the Ema project.

The work will commence in the June quarter and is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

“Analysis from the bio leach reactors will be a continuous part of development and future operations,” the company said.