- Water treatment specialist Clean TeQ (CLQ) has officially completed its first Continuous Ion Exchange Desalination (DESALX) plant in Victoria
- The plant passed all necessary tests and has now been handed over to fellow ASX-listed Kirkland Lake Gold for use at its Fosterville Gold Mine
- The DESALX plant is designed to treat wastewater from mining
- According to Clean TeQ, the technology used in the plant is the first of its kind in the world and positions the company to take advantage of the global mining water and wastewater market
- Looking ahead, the company said it is now focussing on key projects in Congo and China
- Shares in the company gained a neat 21.33 per cent today, currently worth 18 cents each
Water treatment specialist Clean TeQ (CLQ) has officially completed its first Continuous Ion Exchange Desalination (DESALX) plant in Victoria.
The construction of the plant was completed in late-2019 and since then has been subject to performance tests and commission work.
The plant passed all the performance tests laid out in the engineering, procurement, and construction contracts and has now been officially handed over for use at the Fosterville Gold Mine, which is owned by ASX-listed Kirkland Lake Gold (KLA).
Clean TeQ CEO Sam Riggall said this is another significant moment for the company after it completed the world’s first-ever commercial-scale continuous ionic filtration (CIF) plant in Oman last year.
“Confirmation of the successful deployment of our innovative DESALX solution for this application, designed and delivered by Clean TeQ, is a strong validation of our proprietary continuous ion exchange technology, and provides us with a firm foothold in the mining wastewater treatment market from which we can continue to grow the business,” Sam said.
What is DESALX?
Essentially, the Clean TeQ plant is designed to treat wastewater from mining. The tech uses two CIF modules to remove divalent positively and negatively charged ions, knowns as cations and anions, to treat the water.
According to Clean TeQ, the DESALX solution is well-suited to purify difficult-to-treat wastewater with high hardness, sulphate, and heavy metals as well as suspended solids, which can ruin other types of water purification methods such as reverse osmosis.
At Fosterville, the DESALX plant is specifically designed to remove antimony and arsenic from the mining wastewater.
What’s next?
Clean TeQ said it is now focussing on completing another key project at a copper-cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and several pilot programs in China.
The company said its water treatment system if the first of its kind in the world, and as such presents significant opportunities across the glove.
Particularly as environmental regulations increase around the world, demand for eco-friendly water-treatment tech is on the rise. In fact, Clean TeQ said the global mining water and wastewater treatment market is expected to be worth $8 billion by the end of 2023.
Today, Clean TeQ shares have tacked on 21.33 per cent, worth 18 cents each in late-afternoon trade. The company has a $135.86 million market cap.