Americas Tailings Inc. (ATI) is a Colorado-based, private, Earth-Friendly resource company focused on securing rights to develop historical tailings sites and, by applying modern, environmentally-friendly and commercially-viable processing technologies, to extract the metals value and remediate and/or repurpose tailings sites.

Proposal Summary

The Consortium comprising ATI and Advanced Materials Processing Inc. (AMPI) is proposing to repurpose fresh tailings by producing natural, bio-mineral, nutrient-rich fertilizer products from materials contained in the tailings using AMPI‘s patented technology.

The technology combines tailings rock feedstock with biomass material to produce a bio-mineral soil fertilizer (BioRoc) and a bio-mineral liquid fertilizer (RocTea), where elements typically considered deleterious or contaminants (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn, Cu, Zn) are key ingredients for the nutrient-rich fertilizers. The fertilizer products would be transported and sold to the agricultural markets locally and overseas.

The Consortium has a repurposing project in New Mexico, where it is conducting development work supported by a federal Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG) from the US Department of Agriculture.

Solution

A modular-based processing facility would be developed to receive and process fresh tailings.

An initial slurry leaching stage using non-toxic solutions and catalysts is used to stabilize toxic elements, and produce an inert mineral agricultural product. A second stage bio-digestion process uses solid material from the initial stage as feedstock together with bio-waste (food waste). Liquid-solid separation produces an activated bio-mineral soil amendment and a liquid mineral fertilizer.

Auxilium Technologies Group LLC is a University of Arizona early-stage company headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, USA. It is a technology company whose primary focus is on tailings monitoring, processing, treatment and repurposing with a variety of novel proprietary technologies.

Proposal Summary

Auxilium offers a new proprietary solution called Entail™, which has several components that address the treatment and purification of water, extraction of ore content from tailings, energy generation, and the production of a unique tailings-based geofoam. This geofoam is a viable, sustainable solution for the construction industry. They aim to aid world emission goals by producing an innovative material that can be used as an insulator to decrease carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing energy savings.

Their process is ecologically sound and economically viable as it works on different types of base metals and is completely compatible with different processes.

Their value proposition will deliver three significant benefits; identify as many valuable products as possible and deliver a low-cost efficient solution while keeping the processes clean and sustainable. Having a holistic approach gives the opportunity to increment sources of revenue by taking advantage of industry needs and increasing outputs of value. From start to finish the processes are simple, easy to operate and scalable.

Solution

Entail™ comprises several integrated components used to create a complete solution for tailings repurposing  while producing several outputs of significant value. The complete system is comprised of new proprietary technologies. The process begins by producing various reagents using a novel bioreactor technology. Next, there is a metal extraction phase where the ore will be leached using one of their multiple extraction technologies. The effluent is later treated to precipitate leftover metal or rare earth content where water is then purified using a passive solar water purification system that can also generate hydrogen for energy storage. Finally, a geopolimerzation process is used to convert leftover tailings into a geofoam, which is a novel building material that can be used for underground mine.