The Halion Loop™ Explained
Cyclic Process
The Halion Loop™ is a closed-loop cyclic process.
It has no noxious gas emissions and no liquid effluents. Just solid concentrates or tailings in; extraction and recovery of the target metals; and safe, stable residues out.
The Halion Loop™ produces high purity copper metal directly at the mine site, while capturing a broad range of other elements as co-products and by-products.
Final Piece of the Puzzle
Our novel Halion™ electrowinning cell is the key breakthrough that closes the technology loop. It is the first practical, operable design for the direct recovery of high purity copper from the halide system.
Our process is based on thoroughly-established principles of science. Globally, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment have proven halide extraction and purification to TRL7+.
The Halion™ cell is the critical final piece in the puzzle that has been sought through 50 years of global industrial R&D.
Process
The Halion Loop is based on a three-stage counter-current leach with solid-liquid separation at each stage.
Anodic liquor from the cell leaches Au, PGMs and other metals in Leach Stage 3. These can be recovered from the LS3 filtrate.
Cupric ions leach mineral into solution in Leach Stage 2. The resulting cuprous ions are re-oxidised by air. The net result is a catalytic cupric reaction between mineral and air.
Air is stopped in Leach Stage 1, where fresh mineral entering the leach reduces most of the copper to the cuprous state.
After a polishing step to reduce the last little bit of cupric, the solution is purified to recover elements such as Co & Pb.
The clean liquor then passes to the catholyte of the cell, where fresh, high purity copper dendrites form on the cathodes.