SUSTAINABILITY & CSR
What does Hyde say to those who argue that it sounds too good to be true ? “ There ’ s no flaw . This is the reality ,” she counters . “ A mining engineer ’ s attitude might be , ‘ we dig it up and smelt it ’, but the leadership of global mining companies want to look at ways of doing things differently with a renewed focus on health and safety and environmental protection .”
Hyde can see that change is difficult , especially in the mining sector , but is keen to emphasise the proven evidence base that DES do work while being non-toxic , environmentally benign , chemically stable and recyclable . “ We can bring a process to market that allows the use of existing plant equipment that could be simply adapted to allow for DES technology to be
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COMPANY FACTS Argo targeting commercial transforming the lives of some uptake of DES ( deep eutectic of the poorest communities solvents ) technology in four on Earth . key sectors :
E-Waste Recycling
Mining
DES can dissolve precious and DES has been proven to dissolve strategic metals from electrical a host of metals from ores , with circuit boards . It could halt the gold dissolution rates 80-times flow of valuable e-waste to faster than when using cyanide . informal and environmentally The process has the potential to damaging processing sites . eliminate the need for smelting . Remediation
Artisanal
The environmentally benign and DES has the potential to arrest waterless solvents used in DES the use of mercury in artisanal can be employed in difficult to and small-scale mining . This permit jurisdictions . DES can be could contribute to positive social tailored to dissolve toxic heavy and environmental change metals from contaminated sites .
OCTOBER 2019