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Biomining and Bioremediation

Buried treasure: Ontario’s new regulation aims to facilitate the recovery of minerals from mine waste, but many hurdles remain, experts say – by Kelsey Rolfe (CIM Magazine – February 20, 2025)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

Ontario is becoming the first jurisdiction in Canada to have a dedicated regulatory pathway for projects aimed at recovering residual metals and minerals from mine waste. Experts said the move is a promising step, but technical and economic hurdles still stand in the way of wide-scale waste re-mining efforts.

The province announced a regulatory change to the Mining Act in late November 2024 to create a permit process specifically for recovering metals and minerals from tailings and mine waste at open, closed or abandoned mine sites in the province.

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New regulation aims to boost profitability of mine waste (Timmins Daily Press – November 2024)

https://www.timminspress.com/

Critic says scientific and technical support also needed to create inventory of potential sites

Ontario’s Ministry of Mines announced Thursday it is introducing a new regulation under the Mining Act that would make it easier to recover residual metals and minerals from mine waste that could be found at operating, closed or abandoned mine sites.

According to the ministry, there are hundreds of potential sites in Ontario that host tailings or rock waste which could be available for mineral recovery.

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Fulcrum Metals wants to turn Kirkland Lake tailings into treasure – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – September 10, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The UK-based exploration company sees multi-billion-dollar opportunity to extract gold, clean up mining legacy sites

Gold-enriched tailings piles left behind by two historic mining operations outside Kirkland Lake has attracted a United Kingdom-based company promoting the idea of sustainable mining.

Fulcrum Metals wants to dive into the tailings piles of the historic Teck-Hughes and Sylvanite mines to extract gold contained in the granular waste piles on the surface and eventually remediate the sites.

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Researchers get $5M to find nickel, other metals, in Sudbury mine waste – by Staff (Sudbury Star – June 10, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

The idea is they can be used to help make batteries for electric vehicles while reducing the environmental impact of tailings areas

A research arm of Laurentian University will get $5 million to find ways of recovering nickel, cobalt and copper from mine waste in Sudbury that can be used to make batteries for electric vehicles. Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal minister of Energy and Natural Resources, made the announcement in Sudbury on Monday.

The money will go to the Mining Innovation Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corp – or MIRARCO – based at Laurentian University.

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Ontario beefs up supply chain funding for critical minerals – by Len Gillis (Sudbury.com – May 6, 2024)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Mines Minister George Pirie confirms additional funding will be added to the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund over the next three years to boost research into sustainable extraction of new metals required to support the battery electric vehicle industry

Ontario Mines Minister George Pirie said today Ontario is committed to strengthening the province’s critical minerals strategy in the global race to ensure there is a stable supply chain for battery electric vehicles by spending millions in new science and technology to help do that. He said the effort is already underway in Sudbury to develop new ways to procure more critical minerals.

Pirie said the Ontario government will be spending $15 million over the next three years to expand the Ontario Critical Minerals Innovation Fund (CMIF), which is a re-announcement of the funding increase that was announced as part of the Ontario budget earlier this year.

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Could Sudbury’s mine waste feed the steel industry? – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 9, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Biomining company sees tonnes of iron waiting to be extracted from Sudbury tailings

A biomining company that’s rooting around Sudbury’s mine tailings insists there are multiple metal and commodity products waiting to be extracted. Toronto’s BacTech Environmental is filing a patent application for its unique and innovative bioleaching process that recovers valuable metals from mine waste while also cleaning up toxic industrial environments.

BacTech’s process has demonstrated it’s already capable of recovering nickel, copper and cobalt from mine tailings, but now there’s the potential to pull the iron out of the pile while also making a fertilizer product.

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Sudbury researcher predicts late 2024 construction for bio-mining innovation centre – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 31, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

MIRARCO Mining Innovation CEO confident on capital investment arriving for mine waste tech centre

A Canadian expert in the field of bio-mining hopes to break ground on a Centre for Mine Waste Technologies in Sudbury by the end of this year.

Nadia Mykytczuk, president of MIRARCO Mining Innovation, said she’s following an “aggressive timeline” in seeking to construct a $38-million innovation centre when she spoke before the provincial standing committee on finance and economic affairs in Sudbury, Jan.30, as part of the government’s 2024 pre-budget public hearings.

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Bio-mining company to begin testing Sudbury mine waste – by Staff (Elliot Lake Today – December 28, 2023)

https://www.elliotlaketoday.com/

BacTech Environmental to run six-month pilot plant of its bioleaching mineral extraction technology

Testing of an innovative ‘green’ mining technology to extract valuable metals out of mine waste will start in Sudbury in early 2024. BacTech Environmental has a proprietary and environmentally friendly bioleaching process that it wants to test on mine tailings to extract small amounts of cobalt and nickel while it simultaneously cleans up the environment.

The bioleaching process involves using native and naturally occurring and harmless bacteria that can be trained in the lab to target certain ores and contain other substances that are harmful to humans.

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The Future of Mining Might Be Smaller than You Think – by Caitlin Stall-Paquet (The Walrus Magazine – December 2023)

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As the world’s demand for metals continues to rise, some are using microorganisms to mine and “clean” waste

WHEN NADIA MYKYTCZUK first visited the mine sites near Copper Cliff, on the outskirts of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, in 2005, she saw rock piles stretching out in all directions—not so much dotting the landscape as forming their own. On first impression, says Mykytczuk, “you really can’t quite comprehend that everything you see around you is mine waste.”

Some of that rubble is what is known as tailings—the crushed rock or wet slurry left behind after a company has extracted raw materials from ore. But to Mykytczuk, then a PhD student, those drab rock heaps looked a lot shinier.

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Sudbury researchers land funding for green mining initiative – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – August 15,2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

MIRARCO Mining Innovation receive $280,000 from industry innovation network

Sudbury’s MIRARCO Mining Innovation has received $280,000 in grant money from the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network.

The funding is earmarked to help develop a pilot plant in Sudbury that uses a biotechnology process to extract valuable metals out of waste piles at mine sites while simultaneously cleaning up the environment. MIRARCO’s industry partner, BacTech Environment Corp. announced the news on Aug. 14.

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Sudbury’s mine waste worth billions; new project to find ways of extracting valuable minerals – by Staff (Sudbury Star – March 8, 2023)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Vale, province to pay for new industrial research chair program in biomining and bioremediation to be based in Sudbury

Mine waste in the Sudbury area may be worth billions and it’s Nadia Mykytczuk’s job to find ways using bacteria to extract the valuable nickel, copper and other critical minerals out of them.

Her job got a lot easier Wednesday when Vale Energy Transition Metals and the provincial government announced money to support a new industrial research chair program in biomining and bioremediation that she will lead in Sudbury. Vale Energy committed $875,000 over five years to the Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation, and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO) at Laurentian University.

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Clean and green mining in Sudbury takes a step forward – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – March 7, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Vale and Queen’s Park offer up $1.6 million to tackle mining waste and advance bio-mining innovation

A new and environmentally benign form of Sudbury’s mining industry just took a great leap forward with a more than $1.6 million contribution from international nickel miner Vale and the Ontario government.

Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation, and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO) at Laurentian University and its research leader Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk are the recipients of this largess that will be earmarked for the organization’s bio-mining and remediation efforts in tackling mine waste.

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The role of biotechnology in mining and minerals – by Madiha Khan and Steve Gravel (Canadian Mining Journal – January 11, 2023)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

As the global demand for metals continues to grow year over year, the need for intensive mining is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, some reports project that production of battery metals is expected to increase by 500% by 2050. This unprecedented demand is also being met by a two-fold supply problem; the slow speed of new mining operations coming on-line and the general problem of world-wide low ore grades that has surfaced over the last few decades.

The global market needs to grapple with these problems and producers need to find ways to extract metals quickly and cheaply while still adhering to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) responsibilities which have become critical guiding principles of late. One burgeoning area of technology that is potentially valuable in solving some of these issues is biotechnology.

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The race to mine mining waste – by John Lorinc (Corporate Knights – January 9, 2023)

https://www.corporateknights.com/

Could metal-eating bacteria that break down mining waste be key to sustainable battery minerals?

For generations, the topography of Sudbury, Ontario, has been brutally defined by towering slag heaps and vast orange-hued tailings ponds – the physical legacy of almost 140 years of nickel mining and smelting by resource giants like Inco and Falconbridge.

By 1910, in fact, Sudbury’s mines were supplying 80% of the world’s nickel. But by the late 20th century, the industrial fallout – corrosive air pollution, acid rain and a legacy of seemingly intractable contamination – revealed the extraordinary environmental cost of those resource riches.

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NOBA 2022: Nadia Mykytczuk is the Innovation Award winner – by Casey Stranges (Northern Ontario Business- January 3, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

MIRARCO chief’s research into biowaste may be game-changer in race to secure EV battery infrastructure

According to researcher Nadia Mykytczuk, Sudbury is ready to play a leading part in the global story about electric vehicles (EV).

As auto manufacturers lock up supply chains, and countries position themselves as viable trading partners, the Nickel City has the resources and necessary tools to transition into a hub for EV technology.

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