BioteQ’s development in Mexico

BioteQ Environmental Technologies has signed a development agreement with Columbia Metals Corp for the development of a water treatment plant at its La Jojoba gold property located in the State of Sonora, Mexico. The water treatment plant is a new application of BioteQ’s sulphide technologies where BioteQ will provide a plant to Columbia for the regeneration of free and copper-complexed cyanide from barren solutions, which can then be recycled for gold extraction. In addition, the technology converts copper cyanide complexes to copper sulphide which is then recovered as an incremental revenue source. The commercial agreement provides for the joint development of the process during the engineering stages, followed by a build-own-operate commercial structure whereby BioteQ will own the treatment plant in return for metals recovered and fees charged for cyanide regeneration.

Columbia’s La Jojoba property in northern Mexico has a well defined gold resource which is amenable to conventional heap leaching methods for gold recovery. The deposit also contains cyanide-soluble copper minerals, which consume cyanide during the gold extraction process, and can build up in the metallurgical process solutions and hinder maximum gold extraction. BioteQ’s biological sulphide technology for cyanide regeneration allows for recovery of free cyanide and copper-complexed cyanide from the barren solution, following gold recovery from solution. Regeneration of the cyanide also allows the recovery of copper as a sulphide product that can be shipped to a refinery for final processing to copper products.

Based on initial estimates conducted by BioteQ, the addition of BioteQ’s technology to La Jojoba Gold project has the following potential advantages:

· Regeneration of over 4 Mlb/y of cyanide, which reduces the net consumption of cyanide for gold recovery by about a half, which could have a significant impact on the gold resource economics at this site

· Regeneration of copper from cyanide solutions to improve the overall metallurgical performance of the gold heap leach operation by elimination of the build up of deleterious dissolved copper during gold extraction

· The recovery of a saleable copper product from the copper-cyanide complexes in solution for incremental revenue

· The removal of copper from the site to eliminate the potential long term environmental impact of mobile copper waste products.

Based on preliminary estimates there is potential to regenerate approximately 3.6 Mlb/y of copper at a cost of $0.90/lb, while cyanide regeneration costs are estimated to be approximately $0.70/lb.