An agreement has been signed between mineral exploration company MinMet and two partners to market a new gold leaching process internationally, the company's annual general meeting in Dublin was told yesterday.
MinMet has applied for a patent for the product along with the Dublin Institute of Technology and Rio Tinto Technology Development. The product extracts gold using thiourea instead of cyanide and could provide the company with "a revenue stream worth millions", said financial director Mr Michael Nolan.
Gold companies currently use cyanide in their mining operations, but MinMet is hoping environmental concerns about its use may prompt companies to switch to thiourea. The partners in the project are seeking grant aid from the EU to construct a demonstration plant, the a.g.m. was told.
Chairman Mr Jeremy Metcalfe said the cyanide market was currently worth $1.27 billion (€1.17 billion) worldwide. "While we would be foolish to believe we could take all that, there might be a chance to take 5 per cent of it in the future," he said.
The next stage of development of the product would cost about £1 million (€1.27 million), said Mr Metcalfe, and he added that MinMet hoped the EU would meet half of this. He said MinMet itself would "probably contribute about £250,000".
Mr Metcalfe told the meeting the company was confident of receiving a mining licence for its mine at Castromil in Portugal, which has been the subject of lengthy delay.
After the meeting, Mr Nolan told the The Irish Times the chances of the company recovering any money from its investment in eMisis Infocom Group were "very slim".
MinMet injected finance into the firm, which supplied information on emerging markets, several years ago but has been unable to verify the status of the company recently.
