Sponsored Mic'd Up: Dundee Sustainable Technologies Showcases Cyanide-Free Gold Processing and Arsenic Stabilization
Key Takeaways
- •Dundee Sustainable Technologies' CLEVR process extracts gold without cyanide and, according to the company, shortens leach times to under an hour while reducing contaminant discharge to tailings.
- •The GlassLock process removes arsenic from ores, sulphide concentrates, or solutions and stabilizes it in a dense glass matrix using commonly available reagents.
- •CEO Jean-Philippe Mai said companies turned to Dundee when traditional leaching approaches could not deliver the recoveries and cost efficiencies needed for sustainable operations.
- •Cyanide transport, handling, and storage face regulatory and community scrutiny, while stable long-term arsenic disposal remains a key permitting and environmental challenge for miners.
- •The video is promoted content paid for by Dundee Sustainable Technologies and produced in cooperation with The Northern Miner.
In the latest Mic'd Up interview, Northern Miner Group video anchor Devan Murugan travels to Thetford Mines, Que., for an on-site tour of Dundee Sustainable Technologies led by the company's President and CEO, Jean-Philippe Mai.
Dundee has developed two distinct processing technologies: the CLEVR process, a cyanide-free hydrometallurgical method for gold extraction, and the GlassLock process, a pyrometallurgical technique for arsenic removal and stabilization. The visit provides a firsthand look at technologies that, according to the company, could help shape the future of mineral processing.
The interest in cyanide alternatives comes against a backdrop in which cyanide leaching has long been the industry-standard method for gold recovery, while its transport, handling, and storage have drawn sustained scrutiny from regulators and communities — a concern sharpened by incidents such as tailings dam failures at gold operations. Arsenic management, meanwhile, is a long-standing challenge for miners processing arsenic-bearing ores and concentrates, where stable long-term disposal of the toxic metalloid is a key permitting and environmental issue.
"Companies came to us at first for looking for solutions when when traditional processing, traditional leaching approaches weren't providing the recoveries and the efficiencies that are required for projects and operations to be sustainable from an operation and and a cost perspective," Mai said. "Bringing that novel approach, that novel chemistry, allows to to provide new performances and for projects to be approached in different manners."
According to the company, the CLEVR technology shortens leach times to under an hour and reduces contaminant discharge to tailings.
GlassLock addresses a separate but related challenge. The process can remove arsenic from ore, sulphide concentrates, or solutions, and stabilizes it by incorporating the metalloid into a glass matrix using commonly available reagents. The result is a dense, stable glass solid — an approach that, if proven at commercial scale, would bear on how miners handle arsenic-bearing material that many smelters and jurisdictions restrict.
CEO Mai explains the concepts in the video below. Part one of the visit can be found here.
This sponsored video is PROMOTED CONTENT paid for by Dundee Sustainable Technologies and produced in co-operation with The Northern Miner. For more information, visit
