Group 11 is owned by Envirometal Technologies Inc. (CSE: ETI) (OTCQB: EVLLF), enCore Energy Corp. (TSXV: EU) (OTCQB: ENCUF) and Golden Predator Mining Corp. (now Sabre Gold) (TSXV: GPY) (OTCQB: NTGSF) as founding shareholders. Interested accredited parties seeking information regarding investment please contact us.
Group 11 represents the precious metals in the periodic table, our company is focused on alternate technology to extract precious metals in a less invasive method than conventional mining methods.
The In-Situ Recovery (ISR) process is a metals recovery process which differs dramatically from conventional mining techniques. Unlike conventional open pit and underground mining, ISR employs only a series of water wells. A dilute groundwater-based solution is injected into the mineral bearing zone to selectively dissolve the target mineral. The solution is then recovered and this mineral rich solution is then sent to a recovery facility much like a standard commercial water treatment plant for mineral recovery. The now barren solution is repeatedly recycled to the wells with ground water consumption kept to an absolute minimum. At completion of “mining”, this ground water is restored and suitable for all uses it had prior to mining, all wells are plugged, and the land is useable for all its pre-mining uses (farming, pasture lands, etc).
The ISR process was first tested for production of uranium in the mid-1960s and was first applied to a commercial-scale project in 1975 in South Texas. Many of the Group 11 technical team now working to apply the technology to gold and other metals were actively involved. All environmental disturbances are short term and there is no excavation of significant quantities of rock and ore, no open pits, no tailings facilities and absolute minimal liquid and solid waste. It is environmentally benign compared with conventional methods and generally more cost effective. At present, 50% of all global uranium mining is conducted with the ISR process.
Group 11 Technologies was formed to combine the expertise and technologies of several companies to focus on developing, testing and implementing alternate technologies to extract precious metals using In Place Mineral Extraction (IPME) and environmentally friendly solvents. The founding partners are enCore Energy Corp, Envirometal Technologies Inc. and Golden Predator Mining Corp. (now Sabre Gold) Group 11 Technologies intends to test its own projects for the potential to utilize its new technologies for mineral extraction. Group 11 will also focus on sourcing environmentally friendly solutions and may consider testing projects for other companies in the future.
In Situ Recovery (ISR) is a type of In Place Mineral Extraction (IPME) that is an alternative to conventional mining methods and utilizes a series of wells to inject and recover liquid solvents which selectively dissolve target metals such as copper, uranium and gold. The dissolved metal-rich solvent is then pumped to a water treatment facility for recovery of the target metals and the now barren solvent is refortified and reused for additional metals recovery. Unlike conventional mining methods, In Place Mineral Extraction removes the metal while leaving the host rock “in place”.
Applying In Place Mineral Extraction to commodities beyond uranium has been slow to adopt as environmentally friendly solvents have needed to be developed. Group 11 is the first to combine the vast potential of In Place Mineral Extraction (IPME) with an environmentally-friendly diluted water based solution to focus on the precious metal sector. The plans for future tests will be located in jurisdictions with necessary regulations and an understand of IPME methods to govern these tests. The solution used by Group 11 is environmentally friendly, based on ingredients that are FDA approved for human consumption, and is a game changer in for expanding the application of low cost and non-invasive In Place Mineral Extraction technology.
ISR is a type of In Place Mineral Extraction (IPME) for uranium that was commercially introduced during the 1970s in the USA, and then applied in many countries over last 50 years, particularly in Kazakhstan. Group 11’s Dr. Dennis Stover was awarded several of the first patents for the process in the United States starting in 1977. The introduction of In Place Mineral Extraction methods into the uranium sector has dramatically lowered industry costs and the majority of uranium is now produced by ISR.
While the original solvent (or lixiviant) for ISR was sulfuric acid, which is still used in Kazakhstan and some other countries, environmental concerns in the USA necessitated the development of an alternative more environmentally friendly solvent based on common baking soda. As a result of this more environmentally friendly solvents along with reduced environmental impact and lower costs ISR has become dominant recovery method and transformed the uranium sector.
Different solvents are needed for different metals and the issue of identifying an environmentally friendly solution for other metals has historically been a challenge. For instance, acid-based solvents used on some uranium deposits will work on copper, but the baking soda-based solvent will not. Neither acid-based nor baking soda-based solvents are useful for many other metals including gold. Historically all potential solvents for gold have been hindered by toxicity, costs, or their high potential for environmental concern on water quality. This has only recently changed with Envirometal’s (one of the founding shareholders of Group 11) advances in an liquid solution that consists entirely of FDA approved ingredients for human consumption.
While components of this technology existed and have been in commercial use in niche sectors such as the uranium industry, combining the right technical expertise across a spectrum of disciplines, considerable experience and technological advances in a coordinated approach is the key to advancing the widespread adoption of this environmentally and economically superior approach. Group 11 has focused on assembling leading experts in several disciplines to create the right team with all the necessary skills.
The Envirometal team brings expertise in the development and commercialization of environmentally friendly liquid solutions and technology proven in its ability to extract precious metals which has been demonstrated in the field to work better than cyanide on certain gold deposits.
Golden Predator (now Sabre Gold)’s extractive metallurgical and process team was the first to employ Envirometal’s proprietary chemistry to the commercial recovery of gold from sulfide concentrates utilizing its own design for a mobile Secondary Recovery Unit (SRU) which replaced the need for a smelter.
The enCore Energy team with over 30 relevant publications and 7 patents in ISR and innovative metal recovery technology are recognized world experts in ISR from discovery through permitting, design, construction, operation, and ultimate remediation. Members of the team were instrumental in previously assembling the largest U.S. domestic uranium resource base in history while at Energy Metals Corp. ultimately having been acquired for $1.8 billion by Uranium One Inc.
Cyanide is an industry-accepted solvent in use throughout the world. When used safely, it is an efficient means of gold and silver extraction. It is not expected our technology will replace cyanide or conventional mining until demonstrated for many years to be environmentally and economically superior across a wide range of operations. However, it is expected to allow for a less invasive and environmentally responsible option for the development of a wide variety of projects for In Place Mineral Extraction including but not restricted to gold and silver. Furthermore, it holds great promise for regions that have banned cyanide yet would consider alternate more environmentally acceptable extraction technologies.
In Place Mineral Extraction allows the extraction of minerals with minimal disturbance to existing natural conditions, leaving the host rocks ‘in place’. In contrast to underground and open pit mining, the differences are significant and meaningful for everything from permitting to operations to reclamation. Ultimately In Place Mineral Extraction holds the promise of a future with greatly reduced or eliminated open pits, underground shafts, mills, tailings ponds, dams, waste dumps, and smelters.
No. Hydrological fracking involves the high-pressure injection of large amounts water and sand to great depths in a single hole that is often utilized in the oil and gas industry. In Place Mining method generally relies on utilizing permeable host rock that allows solution to move within the geologic unit that hosts mineralization. Most mineral vein system which host gold and precious metal deposits have repeated natural fracturing which forms veins generally filled with impermeable silica containing gold, silver or other metals.
In Place Mineral Extraction operations deliver a range of benefits including lower costs for mine development, processing plant, infrastructure, permitting and reclamation. In Place Mineral Extraction enables production to start at low capital cost and then a modular increase in production, as well as very flexible production capacity.
One of Group 11’s founding companies, Golden Predator Mining Corp. (now Sabre Gold), developed a mobile batch Secondary Recovery Unit (SRU™) to replace the smelting process in the recovery of gold from its sulfide concentrate. Golden Predator (now Sabre Gold) utilized Envirometal’s proprietary environmentally friendly technology in the SRU™ and demonstrated the ability to recover gold from a sulfide concentrate in an environmentally conscious and economically superior manner.
The mobile unit is scalable, portable and cost effective and requires a knowledgeable team to build and operate effectively. Efficiencies of the SRU™ were superior to cyanide with respect to recovery percentage and duration of leach.
Some of the opportunities for the SRU™ include:
The size of the project is not a limitation to In Place Mineral Extraction.
The Envirometal process involving iodine delivers numerous economic and environmental benefits over current extractive technologies. The solution can effectively dissolve gold into aqueous solution with similar leach kinetics and reasonable economics to that of cyanide but is sustainable, safe and environmentally friendly. This water-based process utilizing only FDA approved ingredients has a broad applicability spectrum and is effective on most gold ores and concentrates. It can potentially unlock the value of many deposits located in environmentally sensitive areas that cannot be developed using cyanide. The use of iodine compounds to leach gold dates back at least 40 years but new procedures at Envirometal in terms of gold recovery from pregnant solution and recycling and regeneration of solvents are at the heart of the new breakthroughs.
The wells used for injection and recovery are all closely monitored and arranged to ensure the containment and control of the mining solution. Closure of an ISR operation usually involves cessation of solution injection with continued, moderate, recovery well pumping that flushes any remaining solution from the rocks so that the land can be returned to its pre-mining state.
The United States has very strict guidelines for ensuring the safety and health of its citizens. The Department of Environmental Quality ensures that during ISR mining no solution escapes from the mining area.
Not all ore bodies are created equal… The optimal conditions to use In-Situ Recovery for gold mining must follow a few guidelines. Firstly, the host rock needs to be fractured enough to allow for the solution to permeate through and dissolve the gold resource. The more fractured the rock, the more surface area there will be for the gold to be dissolved. Modern hydraulic or explosive fracturing of the host rock can normally accomplish the requisite permeability on most ore bodies.
The orebody must be contained or encapsulated to ensure the solution stays in contact with the host rock and minimize solution loss through migration to other areas. This is commonly accomplished by natural geological formations or artificially enclosing the ore body with cement mortars or even liquid nitrogen in some instances.
Group 11 is a private company principally owned by three publicly traded Canadian companies; enCore Energy Corp. (TSX-V: EU ; OTCQB: ENCUF), Envirometal Technologies Inc. (CSE: ETI ; OTCQB: EVLLF) and Golden Predator Mining Corp. (now Sabre Gold) (TSX-V: GPY ; OTCQX: NTGSF).
Inquiries about Group 11 can be directed to [email protected].
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