Pacific Ore is developing and commercializing the innovative BioHeap™ leaching process.

The use of bacteria for leaching metals is becoming an increasingly important alternative to conventional extraction processes for the mining industry.

Pacific Ore Limited has developed and patented a bacterial leach process for the extraction of base metals from sulphide ores stacked in pre-prepared heaps.  This process is known as the BioHeap™ process and it involves the innovative combination of bacterial leaching and heaps for base metal extraction.  The Company’s highly experienced technical and management team have been involved in the development of BioHeap™ for over 10 years.

Large scale trials, with both poly-metallic ores and ore types with a predominant metal, have demonstrated that high recoveries of nickel, copper, and cobalt can be achieved using Pacific Ore’s proprietary bacteria and patented processes.  The Company’s proprietary bacteria also have the potential to be applicable to refractory gold ores.

Pacific Ore’s BioHeap™ technology offers the mining industry worldwide an opportunity to achieve a step change in capital and operating costs associated with the extraction of base metals from sulphide mineralisation.

In addition to significantly lowering costs, the BioHeap™ process has a number of other advantages when compared with alternative processes:

• Reduced environmental impact
• Simple to operate
• Well suited to remote locations
• Produces high value products

The Company’s strategy is to identify and develop sulphide mineral deposits where such deposits are:

• amenable to the BioHeap™ process, and where
• Pacific Ore can use its technology to acquire or take an equity position in the project.

In these projects, the BioHeap™ process will comprise all or a significant part of the extraction flowsheet.