St-Georges Platinum and Base Metals Ltd. have announced they are entering into a term sheet agreement with Allied Nickel Corporation to get a perpetual and exclusive license in North America for Allied’s Patented Metal Extraction Technology for Nickeliferous Mineralisation. St-Georges and Allied will also jointly fund a new subsidiary of St-Georges to develop new mineral extraction and processing technologies as well as commercialize the metallurgical process.
The goal of the agreement is to develop technologies that will make the metal extraction from nickeliferous mineralised deposits more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly. The patented process is scheduled for testing over the next three years with material coming from existing hard rock nickel deposits and from historical nickel-copper tailings. The sulphides in tailings are often leached by rain or surface water and eventually leaked into streams causing environmental damage. The new extraction technology will attempt to take out most of the sulphide and convert it into a marketable elemental sulphur/sulphuric acid, while also eliminating the toxicity of the produced residues.
Frank Dumas, Chairman and director of Allied, has stated, “The licensing of Allied’s intellectual property will add to the business model of St-Georges (…) it moves a large portion of the focus of the company from mineral exploration to the development, licensing and exploitation of mineral extraction and metallurgical processes.”