Taiwanese firm invests in green technology for mining activities

MANILA, Philippines — A Taiwan-based company has invested in the local mining industry through a patented technology for metals, particularly nickel and gold, in a bid to encourage the sector to adopt a greener method of extracting minerals.

Philippines Xin Ye Industry, a subsidiary of Taiwan Xinye Precious Metal Technology Co. Ltd., is set to finish its P20-million processing plant in Valenzuela that would offer high-yielding, non-toxic leaching chemical solution as an alternative to mercury and cyanide, toxic heavy metals, which are commonly used for metal recovery.

“A lot of companies have shown interest in our solution, which is much cheaper compared to the billions of investment poured in by processing companies here. We are going to finish the plant by yearend and we will start testing for companies to see,” Xin Ye executive vice president Steven Liao told reporters in a briefing.

“The nickel industry is capable of producing its own using our technology instead of exporting precious laterite ore natural resources at low prices to foreign countries and buying imported steel from foreign countries back to the Philippines at higher prices,” he said.

Nickel ore is the main raw material for stainless steel, batteries and alloys and the Philippines is one of the major producers of laterite ore in nickel mines.

While there are 29 nickel mining companies in the country, only two are producing and processing the nickel itself locally and the rest export their nickel ores to China due to higher cost and technological difficulties in the Philippines.

Patented in the US, Japan and Taiwan, the company said cyanide-free gold stripping Green Power 860 (GP-860) is safer, more environment-friendly, and is an efficient alternative to the usual gold leaching cyanide, aqua regia, and mercury.

“It can extract more than 98 percent of the gold in the ore detection test in various mining areas in the Philippines and the technology would take two hours to extract nickel from laterite ores and the nickel recovery rate exceeds 80 percent,” Liao said.

He added the company is also eyeing another plant in Baguio by next year.

Using GP-860, mining companies have a 95 percent gold recovery rate, higher than average industry standard of a 55 percent gold recovery during processing of ores.

The company said current practices being applied are still inefficient, thus, producing several waste by-products which are highly toxic and unsafe.

The solution has already been examined by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and passed laboratory testings and analysis by private laboratory company Intertek Philippines.

While GP-860 is costlier compared with other leaching chemical solutions, Liao said it has higher gold saturation, gold leaching rate and yield which could double production and revenues of mining companies.