Talon Metals Corp. (TSX:TLO), through its subsidiary Talon Nickel USA LLC, is working with EnviCore Inc to study the latter company’s technology that avoids the creation of mine waste during mineral processing.
EnviCore’s process turns mine tailings into value-added products for the building, construction and infrastructure industries. The product would replace primary raw materials in legacy cement and concrete production that require significant CO2 emissions in processing, the company said.
Talon Metals and EnviCore are conducting lab-scale studies to utilize EnviCore's technology to potentially transform tailings from the processing of nickel and copper-bearing ores into products that are used in construction and infrastructure projects.
The partnership will leverage EnviCore's expertise in the development of tailings management solutions and Talon Metals' expertise in mineral extraction to validate EnviCore's innovative and sustainable process for efficacy, safety, and durability, the company said.
"We are thrilled to be working with Talon Metals to test and scale our technology in lab studies that if proven, can fundamentally change the way the mining industry looks at its waste streams," EnviCore CEO Shahrukh Shamim said in a statement. "Our partnership is focused on new sustainable and environmentally responsible practices that potentially avoid waste and provide society with multiple useful materials."
Talon Metals and EnviCore are subjecting core samples from Talon Metal's Tamarack Nickel project in central Minnesota to the mineral process of extracting the copper, nickel and iron sulphides, and conducting lab tests on replicated waste streams.
If the lab studies are successful, significant independent scientific studies will need to be completed to validate the safety and efficacy of the supplementary cementitious material for public use. Any marketable product would also have to be tested in state and federal permitting processes, the company noted.
Scientists refer to products that replace inputs currently require primary mining as supplementary cementitious materials. The development of supplemental cementitious material, that replaces primary materials like Portland cement, is a key focus of the cement industry as it tries to decarbonize.
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