B.C. funds project to extract minerals, metals while reducing environmental impacts

VANCOUVER — The British Columbia government is funding a pilot project that it says offers the mining industry a path to significantly reduce the environmental impacts of extracting critical minerals.

A statement from the province says Vancouver-based PH7 Technologies Inc. has developed a “closed-loop” process using chemistry to extract and refine critical minerals and help the industry transition to renewable energy.

It says the process also enables the extraction of metals from low-grade resources in a cost-effective way, including platinum-group metals such as copper and tin.

Energy and Mines Minister Josie Osborne says the company is demonstrating the kind of innovative thinking that could transform mining around the world.