THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE – The Exchange for Entrepreneurs | Quarterly Issue No. 2
DST is also planning to set up operations in Argentina’s San Juan Province. Argentina’s provinces enjoy autonomy on numerous economic and industrial matters, which gives them some leeway to offset national policies that have discouraged investment in the country. Mercer says that one way to understand the local environment is to liken the functioning of states in Argentina to those in the United States or Canada, where states and provinces have their own regulations and their own ministers. In working on the project, Mercer has had the opportunity to speak directly with San Juan’s governor, mining minister and other local officials. In late 2014, San Juan launched the Environmental Management and Control Capacity Building project. Among others, it involved the Ministry of Mining San Juan, the San Juan Quality Agency, the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Development Programme. The Environmental Management and Control Capacity Building project will monitor multiple mining projects in the Andes Mountains. The goal will be to determine compliance with best practices in the contexts of existing provincial legislation and mining standards in Canada and the United States. Establishing facilities in Chile and Argentina is a major development for Dundee but hardly represents overnight success. The company has honed its technology not only in the lab but also at a pilot plant in Thetford Mines, Quebec. The government of Quebec chipped in $700,000 in 2011-2012 to make the plant a reality, with the Canadian government following suit in 2013-2015 with $5 million. Over the last 10 years, Dundee has studied over 200 different gold deposits, looking at both oxide and sulfide ores, in the lab and at its pilot plant. In all test cases, the extraction yield topped 90%. Given all the environmental and cost advantages of the technology, Mercer cautions that if there is a downside to the company’s method it is that Dundee might have a problem handling demand. The technology should open doors for many companies having difficulty obtaining production permits because it will help mines meet environmental regulations in many countries.
Beyond Chile and Argentina, Mercer suggests that every country that produces gold could be an important market for the technology owing to increasing pressure for mining companies there to observe environmentally and socially sustainable practices. Chile has attracted billions of dollars in mining investment thanks to high quality mineral resources and well established political and economic institutions. But Chile has also been enforcing stricter environmental standards of late, establishing new entities devoted to sustainability. Existing mines stand to benefit from Dundee’s technology, and by the sounds of it new ones would be foolish not to at least consider it. Proof of concept is often the hardest thing to do for a small company, and once past that hurdle a good idea can be difficult to hold back. Dundee Sustainable Technologies has its leading foot planted on the ground. The race ahead should be interesting indeed. n
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