During a trip to South Africa a few years ago, Brad Marchant discovered something that wouldn't excite the typical tourist. It was a biological process for recycling fertilizer sulphur, and it triggered an idea that he believed he could take to the bank — helping the environment in the process.

A mining industry specialist, Marchant realized that the process, used by regional farmers, could yield an unexpected bounty for his industry. That idea evolved into BioteQ Environmental Technologies Inc., a Vancouver-based developer of wastewater-treatment technologies for mining operations.

Bioteq president and chief executive officer Brad Marchant. (Courtesy Bioteq)The process is just one of the new environmental technologies being used to make the mining industry greener. Jim Popowich, past president of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) in Montreal, says that while there is a lot of work to be done, the industry is definitely pushing innovation in water treatment.

"Anything that gets you there — I know the industry looks at it," he says. "We're always looking at how to minimize water use and recovery and putting what we can back into the system."

Mining company Breakwater Resources Ltd. was the first to pilot the BioteQ system to treat wastewater stored at a closed zinc-mining site in Bathurst, New Brunswick, back around 2002. Robert Carreau, vice-president of corporate social responsibility and sustainability for Breakwater, says that until recently, finding workable green technologies was easier said than done. "[As an industry] we always had our ears open, but there wasn't a lot out there. There was never anything outside of the box that made any sense on a large scale."

'Oil sands producers are pushing the development of [water treatment] technologies.'— Greta Raymond, Petro-Canada

The fact that permits for new operations are getting harder and harder to come by isn't hurting the push for innovation in the mining industry, either.

"We're seeing downward pressure through the permitting and licensing process for water minimization," Greta Raymond, vice-president of environment, safety and social responsibility for Petro-Canada in Calgary, says.

"In the oil sands for example, there are a lot more restrictions in terms of the technology you need to put in place to minimize water use and the amount of water you can draw from the [Athabasca] river. Oil sands producers are pushing the development of [water treatment] technologies so we use as little as possible."

Heavy metal thinking

BioteQ's technology claim to fame is that its biologically based processes can safely remove dissolved metals and sulphates from contaminated water - of which there is plenty to be had at mining sites.

A water treatment tank that makes up part of the Bioteq water filtration system. (Courtesy Bioteq)In simple terms the process uses specific "reagents" — substances used to create chemical reactions — to do the recovery work. The end result is that wastewater is clean enough to pass muster with environmental guidelines for discharge to the environment or reuse in the mining process. In addition, the materials extracted from the water can be sold as a source of revenue, which helps to offset the cost of treatment.

This process is significant when one considers that the lime treatments typically used by mining operations to process waste water leave behind volumes of metal-laden sludge that needs to be stored, monitored and managed for decades. There are countless active and closed sites around the world that require ongoing upkeep to ensure that the toxins held in sludge reservoirs don't re-enter the environment.

BioteQ is now starting to gain attention from a number of international mining operations, including China's largest copper producer, Jiangxi Copper Co.

Oil treatment

ProSep Inc. is a Montreal-based company that has applied equally creative thinking to developing a technology for treating contaminated water in offshore oil and gas operations. Known as TORR — short for Total Oil Remediation and Recovery — its system uses a coalescing element which separates solids from liquids. As the water passes through the membrane it captures microscopic size oil droplets. In time, the oil accumulates to the point where it creates a film that eventually floats to the surface for safe removal.

Like the BioteQ discovery, the development of TORR originally started out in a different direction.

"Originally, our goal was to create a reusable medium to treat oil spills in the form of a 'pillow,'" Serge Fraser, vice-president, corporate development, explains. "However, there wasn't much of a market, so we decided to create a system that would allow water to flow through the medium constantly."

Fraser notes that TORR technology is already being used in oil rig operations in the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Middle East to process what is known as "overboard discharge" from oil extraction operations. "This is one of the most difficult types of wastewater to treat because the size of the oil droplets averages four microns. Conventional technology simply can't treat that."

Given that it can take anywhere from three to seven barrels of water to produce every barrel of oil, anything that can keep microns of oil particles out of the waste stream is a good thing.

"Rules around the world have become tighter and tighter," explains Fraser. "Most countries have been demanding around 40 ppm [parts per million of oil to water]. Some are now going to less than 10 ppm. We can treat to 1 ppm - that's a very good result."

The oil sands revisited

The unique nature of the oil sands has provided significant opportunities to explore new ideas, especially given the tight rein being imposed on water usage, says Roger Jacklin, North American strategic marketer for GE Water & Process Technologies in Oakville, Ont.

Mining operations generate large amounts of waste water that is often contaminated with material such as dissolved metals and sulphates. (Courtesy Bioteq)Older techniques for cleaning water used "precipitators" to remove dissolved calcium, magnesium and silica, he explains. Like metal mining, this process formed a sludge that needed to be disposed of and monitored.

"The industry is now going to technologies that reduce the amount of solids so water can be reused continuously," Jacklin says.

Among the technologies coming out of GE is a homegrown innovation called ZeeWeed, which was developed by Dr. Andrew Benedek when the company was known as ZENON Environmental Inc. This membrane filtration technology for purifying drinking water is now being showcased as part of the city of Edmonton's Gold Bar project to minimize the stress on the North Saskatchewan River.

The Petro-Canada-funded initiative allows water from the municipal treatment plant to be treated for reuse by the refinery operations. The project has received both a provincial Emerald Award and a national award from the Canadian Council for Ministers of the Environment.

Popowich notes that North American operations are at a decided advantage, since they have the technology know-how to come up with some good ideas. "We have some of the best miners in the industry. Because of that, they also tend be some of the most innovative."

New thinking required

With the spotlight on water conservation and all things green these days, the pressure is greater than ever for industries to explore alternative ways to use, treat and dispose of wastewater.

'The toughest sell until recently has been getting the industry to try these technologies out. Now they're paying attention.'— Brad Marchant, BioteQ

Contrary to what one might think, though, the concern over water consumption within the mining sector is not new, Marchant says. "Back in the 1980s, one of the issues we ran into a lot with mines was water quality. Even then, people in the industry were thinking five to 10 years ahead about water issues. We all knew there must be a better way of doing things."

He adds that the North American legislative climate has been an enabler in pushing the technology envelope.

"Canadian mining and engineering companies must meet very strict regulations, and enforcement [in North America] is very, very high," he says. "That in turn drives us to come up with new technologies to be competitive. The toughest sell until recently has been getting the industry to try these technologies out. Now they're paying attention."

The author is a Canadian freelance writer.