Alternative to mercury for gold recovery for small-scale miners to demo in Suriname

U.S. technology firm, Haber Inc. is to demonstrate its STAMP mercury abatement technology to the Suriname Government

TOULOUSE - 

Massachusetts-based Haber Inc. will perform demonstration runs in Suriname soon using its hydrometallurgical "green" recovery technology on sulphide ores to prove to the government of Suriname, small scale miners and mining companies that it can more than double the current extraction efficiencies and eliminate the use of mercury. Haber is a publicly-held scientific research and development company controlling a number of innovative technologies in the areas of separation science, extractive metallurgy and medical diagnostics. Today, with offices in Massachusetts, Zimbabwe and Ghana, the company's globally-commercial technologies are garnering increased attention throughout the world.

Albert B. Conti, CEO of Haber stated, "The newly elected Surinamese government has run on a platform of "green" gold mining to eliminate the use of mercury as an initiative to solve the environmental problems plaguing the country and has solicited Haber to demonstrate its technology as a possible method to effectuate its stated goal. Also the government's interest in implementing Haber's Strategic Abatement of Mercury and Poverty (STAMP) program to deal with small scale miners would create new opportunities for the people of Suriname and would have a significant and profound humanitarian, environmental and economic impact on Suriname's development dynamics and could greatly stimulate its economy."

Haber's demonstrations will use concentrates and head ore received from private and public gold mining companies. The Surinamese government and officials of international organisations will also be in attendance to observe the testing. Currently gold mining companies in Suriname are only obtaining gold recovery efficiencies in the mid 30% range using mercury. Haber has extensively tested representative materials from the region and obtained efficiencies in the 90% range, indicating that Haber's "green" technology, if commercially implemented, could potentially more than double revenues without any increase in mining volumes. One of the objectives of the demonstration is to confirm this significant efficiency improvement to all stakeholders.

Successful demonstration results would lead to the initiation of government discussions on a Suriname/Haber strategic partnership drafted to advance the countries "green" gold initiative. Furthermore, it was indicated that as part of any potential final agreement the government would provide or assist in the necessary funding to begin a small commercial Haber pilot processing plant on a current Surinamese mining operation that is using mercury.Conti continues, "The country has large gold resources which have not yet been fully exploited. Accordingly, there are numerous opportunities where Haber's technology could be used and revenues generated. Suriname represents a unique opportunity for our company to provide an environmentally friendly process to the mining community with significant opportunities for increasing the extraction efficiencies and thereby revenues for Haber and all mercury users.

"We expect to begin the gold processing demonstrations before early-October in Paramaribo and intend on establishing a permanent operations office in Paramaribo before the end of the year.  Haber has pursued for nearly six years introduction of its ‘green' technology to eliminate the use of mercury in gold mining. It now appears that the recently elected Surinamese government's strong ‘green' gold policy presents a significant opportunity to begin to realise that objective. Success in Suriname would present a country blueprint on how other countries can successfully transition into becoming ‘green' gold producers with Haber's environmentally friendly technology being an integral part of that solution. However, it must be noted that there is no guarantee that Haber can successfully meet the protocol objectives of the demonstrations or enter into any agreements with the government or mining companies".

John Chadwick is editor/proprietor of International Mining magazine - www.im-mining.com

SUBSCRIBE to Mineweb.com's free daily newsletter now.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Disclaimer

MINEWEB is an interactive publication, with rolling deadlines through each day, commencing in the Sydney morning,  and concluding, 24 hours later,  in the Vancouver evening.  If you believe your side of an issue deserves inclusion, but has failed to meet one of our deadlines, you are invited to notify the Editor in Chief in Johannesburg, and we will include you in our editing and expanding on our stories. Email him at alechogg@gmail.com

Print story      Email story      Subscribe to free newsletter

Back

 

responses to this article

Green Gold Technology Hi, I have tried on several occassions over the past 10 yrs to get information from Haber about their method and if it can be used in the States by small-scale miners. They have not answered one of my inquiries. I even tried . .more to conact Mr. Haber himself after an on-line demo he did showing you can drink the leach solution and not be harmed, but got no response. I had a gold property in Montana that I wanted to see if their technology would work on since Monatan banned cyanide leaching. For some reason, they have never replied back which makes one suspicious at what they are up to - third world countries with $$$? Maybe their technology only works overseas and isn't intended for state side, small-scale miners? This is just my experience with this company over the years. Ag . .less by Alan G on August 04 2010, 13:02 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Name
Subject
Comment