Circular Mineral Harvesting

Aclara maintains an unwavering dedication to preserving the Earth's natural resources while meeting the growing demands of a sustainable future. Our commitment to producing the cleanest Rare Earths in the market has been recognized through the following Sustainability Awards:

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Innovation and Environmental Sustainability - 2024 Mining Technology Excellence Awards

‍The Mining Technology Excellence Awards is one of the most widely recognized programs in the industry, powered by GlobalData’s business intelligence, celebrating the leading achievements and innovations within the mining industry. The awards program highlights companies and individuals who are driving meaningful progress and transformation in the sector.

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2023 Innovation Award - SEAL Awards

SEAL, which stands for  Sustainability, Environmental Achievement & Leadership, honors leadership through business sustainability awards, while funding research and pursuing their own environmental impact campaigns. The 2023 SEAL Innovation Award recognized innovations that represent game-changing ideas that bring the world to a more sustainable future. Read the news release here.

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Sustainability Initiative of the Year 2022 - Business Intelligence Group

‍The Business Intelligence's Sustainability Awards honor the organizations who have made Sustainability an integral part of their business practice or overall mission.  The award won by Aclara, the Initiative of the Year Award, is presented to an organization within a specific industry that has launched or completed a sustainability initiative or project within the last 12 months. Read the news release here.

The process flowsheet has two patents in place that protect this innovation. The first has already been granted in all the countries that were requested: Chile, Brazil, US, and China, and the second patent has recently been filed and received in Chile, and it is pending to be granted in China, Brazil and Australia.

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The successful completion of the laboratory testing phase (announced on November 09, 2022) gave birth to “Circular Mineral Harvesting”, a unique process that not only results in attractive recoveries of Rare Earths but also minimizes the associated environmental footprint.

The extensive testing program carried out during 2021 and 2022 validated the water treatment requirements for the Penco Module flowsheet, thereby satisfying the objective to minimize the freshwater requirements of the process plant through maximizing the recycling of the process liquids within the plant. During this program, an innovative process was conceived which allows the recycling of water in a closed circuit to meet the goal of zero liquid discharge. As a result, the production flowsheet shows that 95% of the water utilized by the process plant is retained within the circuit, that 99% of the main reagent (ammonium sulphate) is recirculated, and that no liquid residues will be produced, thus negating the need for a tailings storage facility.

In addition, the mining activities do not require the use of explosives nor the need to crush and milling the ionic clay feedstock, resulting in an operation with a very low carbon footprint.