Industrial Solutions

The Value of Water

Water is becoming an increasingly valuable commodity worldwide. While drinking water has the highest value, industry, agriculture, food processing and residential applications and more importantly, the health of the environment, all place a high value on clean water-that is, water without contaminating metals and salts. The value of bottled drinking water is approaching the value of gasoline as a commodity. At the same time,

the cost to supply clean water for other uses is also increasing rapidly.

While we do not produce drinking water, BioteQ is in the business of treating contaminated water to produce clean water, along with saleable co-products for recycle, which are both becoming more valuable to our global community.

* Sources: Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators, 2006 Edition, 1994 and 2003 Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey.** Sources: Stanford Group, does not include drinking water.

Cost of Agricultural Water*

3.50

3.00

2.50

2.00

1.50

PRIC

E (

US$

/100

0 ga

llons

)

YEAR

1988 1994 2003 2006

Cost of Residential Water**

PRIC

E (

US

cent

s/10

00 g

allo

ns)

7.5

7.0

6.5

6.0

5.51988 1994 2003

YEAR

It has been estimated that the current liability associated with acidic and metal contaminated wastewater exceeds US $50 billion in North America alone. Historically, wastewater has been treated using lime, or a similar alkali source, to precipitate metals and contaminating salts, such as sulphate, into a sludge product.

Meeting water quality standards with lime plants is not getting easier. Regulatory requirements for water discharged into the environment are becoming more stringent. As time passes, we will face even more demanding standards for discharged water. With respect to some metals and sulphate, lime plants cannot meet these high standards.

The disposal of sludge (solid waste products) produced by lime treatment, along with concentrated sulphate streams resulting from membrane or nanofiltration operations, have come under increasing scrutiny. Although the metals and salts are being removed from water, they are essentially being transferred to another medium, and still require containment or further processing. Long term sludge and residue management has become an important and costly issue worldwide. In addition, the valuable metals contained in the wastewater are often lost during the treatment process, so the inherent value of the water and its co-products are never realized.

The Need

BioteQ is a Canadian industrial technology company that utilizes patented technology to treat wastewater, while simultaneously producing value-added products, primarily in the mining industry. Selective recovery of copper, zinc, nickel, cobalt and

other saleable metals can result in a profitable operation, and/or can significantly offset water treatment costs. BioteQ utilizes its knowledge and experience in a number of applications including:

What We Do

• Treatment of acid mine drainage with selective recovery of saleable metal concentrates, which provide a sustainable revenue source to pay for water treatment.

• Reduction or elimination of waste sludge or residue.

• Treatment of leach solutions, metallurgical bleed streams and effluents from leaching operations, smelters, refineries and metal processing plants, along with selective recovery of saleable metal products, sulphate reduction and iron control.

• Generation of a low-cost sulphide reagent to replace chemical sulphide reagents for use in mineral flotation plants, pulp mills, cyanide regeneration and other industrial processes.

Benefits of Using BioteQ

BioteQ’s sulphide-based treatment plants can be built on a standalone basis, or integrated with other water treatment plants such as lime plants to enhance overall performance. The potential benefits of sulphide-based treatment include:

• Better water quality due to lower solubility of metal sulphides when compared with corresponding hydroxides produced in lime plants.

• Metals can be precipitated and recovered selectively into high-grade sulphide concentrates. These products can be sold to produce revenue.

• Sludge volume and toxicity are reduced or eliminated due to the prior removal of heavy metals.

• Following heavy metals removal in the BioteQ process - products made from gypsum and iron sludge can be formed into value-added construction materials.

• A sustainable environmental solution.

A better overall environmental solution.

BioteQ’s Core TechnologiesBioSulphide® ProcessThe use of biogenic sulphide for the selective recovery of valuable metals, along with treating the water to meet discharge criteria.

2

3

4

1

ChemSulphide™ ProcessIn some cases operation of a dedicated bioreactor is not warranted, due to a variety of factors, in which case a chemical sulphide source is used.

Integration with Lime Plants Use of the BioSulphide® Process or ChemSulphide™ Process integrally with lime plants, for the recovery of valuable metals, control of iron and sulphate, and production of value-added construction materials from waste sludge.

Sulf-IX™ for Sulphate and TDS ControlTo meet new regulations for sulphate content in treated water from a BioteQ and/or a lime plant, Sulf-IX™ ion exchange processes are used where sulphate removal is required for control of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS).

Using naturally occurring sulphur-reducing bacteria, sulphide produced from elemental sulphur with the BioSulphide® Process is used to precipitate and recover metals selectively from contaminated industrial water. This process has several advantages when compared to chemical reagent sulphide sources such as NaHS, Na2S or H2S:

• Lower cost.

• Sulphide produced on demand with minimum site inventory and no transport.

• No sodium added, which might improve metallurgical processes.

• Produced at ambient temperature and pressure for ease of construction and safety of the operation.

The flowsheet below shows a circuit for the precipitation of one metal. Multiple contactor/clarifier units can be provided if more than one metal product is to be recovered. Note the bioreactor is operated independently of the chemical stage, without any feed water passing through the bioreactor.

BioSulphide® Process - Biological Sulphur Reduction1

2The BioSulphide®, ChemSulphide™ and the Sulf-IX™ technologies can be particularly effective

when integrated with a lime plant. A metals recovery plant can be situated upstream or downstream of a lime plant for recovery of valuable metals, while the Sulf-IX™ process can be used to polish the final effluent for sulphate and TDS control prior to discharge to the environment.

When metals are recovered upstream of the lime plant, costs for lime can be saved and sludge production reduced by operating the plant at a neutral pH. In addition, once the heavy metals are removed, any residual sludge product from lime and/or sulphate processing containing gypsum and iron can be formed to make value-added construction materials.

When BioteQ’s core technologies are combined with a lime plant, potential advantages include:

• Metal recovery to offset treatment costs

• Improved quality of treated water

• Reduced sludge production and sludge liability

• Reduced lime costs

• Managanese and zinc removal at low pH

• Manufacture of saleable construction materials from the sludge after heavy metal removal.

Integration with Lime Plants

Removal of sulphate to meet new regulations worldwide is more efficient using the Sulf-IX™ process when compared with biological sulphate reduction and membrane technology. Typically applied following a BioteQ plant and/or a lime plant, the Sulf-IX™ process allows for low cost removal of sulphate to less than 500 mg/L while producing a clean gypsum product that can provide added-value as a construction material. The treated water product from a Sulf-IX™ plant can be discharged directly to the environment or recycled.

Sulf-IX™ for Sulphate and TDS Control3

In some cases, operation of a dedicated bioreactor is not warranted, due to a variety of factors. The ChemSulphide™ Process uses a chemical sulphide source for the selective recovery of valuable metals, along with treating the water to meet discharge criteria. The treatment result is the same as the BioSulphide® Process.

ChemSulphide™ Process4

Related ApplicationsBioteQ’s core technologies have significant potential for integration with other processes. Some of the

benefits include enhanced metallurgical recoveries and efficiencies, improved environmental performance, or simply the provision of a lower cost sulphide reagent. Some examples of processes that could benefit when integrated with the BioteQ’s core technologies include:

Integration with Leaching OperationsBioteQ’s technology can be used as an alternative

for metal winning and leach solution chemistry control. For example, the BioSulphide® Process would be used to replace SX-EW in a conventional copper heap leach, particularly for lower flow and/or grades, or to treat a raffinate bleed stream. In addition to reducing the inventory of both economic and undesirable metals—such as Cu, As, Cd, Pb, Zn, Ni and Mn—there is the potential for improved leach kinetics and metal recovery from the heap.

The same principals could also be applied for heap decommissioning by providing a means of recovering metals from solutions at the conclusion of heap and dump leach operations.

Integration with Smelter OperationsSmelting operations may have one or more waste

streams, bleed streams, or acid blow down solutions that contain metals, usually with a high acidity. These streams are usually treated with lime to remove the metals to allow discharge or recycling. Older smelting operations might also have groundwater contamination issues that need to be addressed.

Tailings ProcessingTailings from mining operations contain residual

metals, which can be released using acid (either acid wastewater or other acid sources) and the soluble metals are recovered in a BioteQ plant. Metals recovered can help pay for tailings disposal, while the treated tailings are environmentally inert and no longer a potential liability to the owner.

Mineral ProcessingUnit operations in mineral processing sometimes

use sulphide reagents. Examples where biogenic sulphide can replace conventional chemical sulphide reagents include copper-molybdenum separation in flotation and copper recovery and cyanide regeneration in copper-gold ore processing (SART Process).

Bleaching ProcessesBleaching processes combined with the

BioSulphide® Process can offer a lower cost reagent produced “on-demand” at the user’s site. Potential uses include bleaching in the pulp and paper industry, and for kaolin reductive bleaching in the manufacture of kaolin whitening agents for paper and ceramic products.

Our Business ModelsBioteQ will finance, build and operate, or provide turnkey plants for the treatment of acid mine

drainage and other acidic/metal effluents using commercially proven technology. Typical business models for BioteQ’s projects include:

Build, Own, OperateBioteQ provides the capital and operating costs for the treatment plant and charges a fee for

water treatment and/or retains the metals recovered from the water. After capital payback, the metal revenues are shared with the property owner.

Joint Venture BioteQ shares the capital and operating costs with the property owner, operates the plant, and

shares in the process benefits and metals recovered.

Turnkey Plant BioteQ designs, builds and operates the plant on a fee basis, including technology transfer fees.

In all models, BioteQ will provide a process guarantee.

BioteQ

Suite 1700, 355 Burrard Street Vancouver, British Columbia Canada, V6C 2G8

T: 604.685.1243 F: 604.685.7778 E: bioteq@bioteq.ca

www.bioteq.ca