BQE Water and David Kratochvil Win Both MetSoc Innovation & Sustainability Awards for Contributions to Environmental Protection in Mining
VANCOUVER, BC, June 20, 2023 /CNW/ - BQE Water Inc. (TSXV: BQE), a leader in the treatment and management of mine impacted waters, is extremely honoured to be the recipient of two awards from the Metallurgy and Materials Society (MetSoc) – the 2023 MetSoc Innovation Award to the company for its development of the groundbreaking Selen-IX™ technology for selenium removal from wastewater and the 2023 MetSoc Sustainability Award to President & CEO David Kratochvil for his significant contribution towards addressing critical water challenges in mining, including leadership in developing Selen-IX™.
The MetSoc Innovation Award recognizes an outstanding innovation in the mining industry that has been successfully applied in a commercial scale operation. Selen-IX™ was developed by BQE Water to provide mining with an effective industry specific solution to remove selenium from mine water. While essential for all life, selenium is released into water in large quantities by mining and other industrial activities and is toxic at high concentrations. Selen-IX™ selectively captures selenium from wastewater to produce treated water compliant with regulatory discharge limits. The only treatment by-product is a stable non-toxic solid that can be disposed of onsite or has off-take potential in steel making. Since its commercialization in 2020, Selen-IX™ has been successfully applied in three mining and one power generation application, with other projects in various stages of development.
The MetSoc Sustainability Award promotes innovation and development in the field of environmental control technology and is presented to an individual who has made significant contributions to industry sustainability and environmental issues. David Kratochvil is a chemical engineer with over 20 years of experience in the treatment and management of mine water. He is an advocate for a holistic approach to water challenges and throughout his career has demonstrated leadership in advancing mine water treatment and management practices to be more sustainable and generate better outcomes for the environment, local communities, and the industry. Under his guidance the company has in the past two decades, developed and commercialized four treatment technologies that are now used by mines around the world to produce clean water for safe environmental discharge while eliminating toxic waste, and in some cases recover value that significantly offsets overall treatment costs. The most recent technology was Selen-IX™.
"We are truly honoured and I am personally moved to be awarded both the MetSoc Innovation and Sustainability Awards for our efforts and contributions to making our industry more environmentally responsible and socially acceptable," said David Kratochvil, President & CEO at BQE Water. "These awards provide recognition of the steadfast work put in by our team which resulted in the creation of a new tool the industry can use to meet selenium regulations in a holistic manner. This would not have happened if we did not challenge entrenched views about mine water treatment to go beyond the principle of 'do no harm' to 'do better'. And we could not have done this without the support from the many different mining and power generation companies, industry partners, regulators, and local communities we worked with, all of whom embraced innovation and a new way of looking at water."
The awards will be handed out at an Awards Banquet taking place during the 62nd Annual Conference of Metallurgists (COM) in Toronto, Ontario from August 21 to 24, 2023. MetSoc is one of eleven societies that is part of the Metallurgical Society of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) family. Together, CIM is instrumental in helping mining industry professionals develop their knowledge and expertise to help build environmental stewardship, value creation and social responsibility of the industry.
More information about the awards and the full list of current winners is available here: https://metsoc.org/awards-recipients/
BQE Water is a service provider specializing in water treatment and management for metals mining, smelting and refining. We are helping to transform the way the industry thinks about water in the context of natural resource projects by offering services and expertise which enables more sustainable water management practices and improved overall project performance at reduced risks. BQE Water invests in innovation and has developed unique intellectual property through the commercialization of several new technologies at mine sites around the world for organizations including Glencore, Jiangxi Copper, Freeport-McMoRan and the US EPA. BQE Water is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol BQE. Visit www.bqewater.com for more information.
SOURCE BQE Water Inc.
BQE Water Inc., Suite 250 - 900 Howe Street, Vancouver BC Canada V6Z 2M4, David Kratochvil, President & CEO, [email protected]; Heman Wong, CFO, [email protected]; 604 685 1243 or 1 800 537 3073
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