Ann: Extension of Voluntary Suspension, page-17

Do we have a new method of processing?
I wonder what discussions one would have witnessed during the heap leach infancy?
From early 1980's until now only ~16% are using this method.  
It would be nice to see bbx prove a new method with superior far metrics.
Kind regards, Wack.


As a booming global population and emerging economies put pressure on existing resources, and high grade ores become a thing of the past, mining companies are looking for technologies that will allow them to economically recover target materials, namely metals, from low grade ore sources. One technology has proven its worth in meeting the changing demands of the mining industry: heap leaching.

The heap leaching technology has seen substantial growth over the past few decades, becoming a key process in mining; NAUE, a group specializing in geosynthetic liners, assesses that over 30% of copper and gold produced each year is beneficiated via heap leaching, up from only about 3% decades earlier.

BENEFITS OF HEAP LEACHING
Largely due to the economic advantages it can offer, heap leaching has prevailed as the preferred approach to beneficiation in settings where the ore source is low grade, or has been considered uneconomic to process via other approaches.

Heap leaching offers a wide range of advantages, both economic and otherwise, that have undoubtedly contributed to its exponential growth. Among them:

• Low capital investment and operating costs
• Fast payback
• No tailings disposal
• Lower energy and water requirements
• Can be applied to tailings and waste piles
• Viable in a wide range of climates
• Simple setup and operation