- BQE Water (TSXV:BQE) has successfully demonstrated a pilot mine water treatment process in British Columbia
- The project simultaneously removed sulphate and selenium from mine water, in order to comply with provincial water quality standards
- BQE’s demonstration successfully reduced both sulphate and selenium to levels well below current accepted limits
- BQE Water (BQE) remains unchanged, with shares currently trading at C$9.25
Mine water treatment company, BQE Water (TSXV:BQE) has successfully demonstrated a pilot mine water treatment process in British Columbia.
In order to comply with provincial water quality standards, the project required the simultaneous removal of sulphate and selenium from its mine water.
Currently, the province’s accepted limit for sulphate in mine water is 120 to 400 milligrams per litre. The current provincial limit for selenium is 2 micrograms per litre.
In the pilot demonstration, BQE was able to simultaneously reduce the sulphate and selenium in the mine water to well under accepted levels.
The process reduced the sulphate in the mine water to as low as 30 milligrams per litre. The selenium was reduced to less than 1 microgram per litre.
The treatment combines nanofiltration with a selenium electro-reduction circuit. The electro-reduction circuit forms part of the BQE’s Selen-IX process technology.
In addition to successfully complying with regulatory limits, the demonstration also showed the process’ ability to adapt to water quality fluctuations. Furthermore, the treatment process was able to generate stable, non-hazardous solids for disposal.
BQE Water’s President and CEO, David Kratochvil, praised the success of the demonstration.
“The success of this pilot builds on BQE Water’s prior experience with sulphate removal using nanofiltration, and selenium removal by electro-reduction to create an important new tool in our technological toolbox.
“The ability to manage sulphate and selenium simultaneously is of interest to a number of mining projects in British Columbia. This pilot confirms to both industry and regulatory agencies that an effective treatment process is available,” Kratochvil said.
BQE Water (BQE) remains unchanged, with shares currently trading for C$9.25 at 11:43am EST.
