Reagents for Sustainable Mineral Extraction

While the mining industry is undergoing an impactful change in terms of sustainable practices, there is an imminent need for new approaches that fit this mandate. We have taken the mission to aid the industry by providing solutions for repurposing mine tailings. In a step towards low-energy metal extraction, Auxilium uses “ionometallurgy” technology, which uses ionic liquids as lixiviants to extract metallic valuables and as plating bath to electrodeposit the metal. Less solvent is required to dissolve the same amount of metal from an ore when using ionic solvents. After the metal is deposited from this ionic solvent, it can be recycled and reused to extract more metals from ores