TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian clean-technology firm Orbite Aluminae has received a ‘notice of allowance’ indicating that it would be granted a Canadian patent for its process for treating red mud.

The TSX-listed company, which is currently converting its high-purity alumina (HPA) production plant, at Cap-Chat, in Quebec, into a state-of-the-art, full-scale 1 t/d facility, said in a statement that the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) had granted its patent application and the company expected the patent to be issued within 9 to 12 weeks.

Red mud is the waste product of the traditional Bayer process for refining bauxite to obtain alumina, the raw material for the electrolytic production of aluminium. A typical bauxite refinery generated one to two times as much red mud as it did alumina.

Orbite explained that waste was typically stockpiled in open-air tailings ponds, although in some cases, it had been disposed of in the ocean. Red mud represents a long-term environmental liability for the entire alumina industry.

The Orbite process was able to use red mud as a feedstock, extracting all the valuable constituents, including rare earths and rare metals, alumina, magnesium oxide and titanium dioxide, while only returning a small fraction of inert material. In this way, the Orbite process not only contributed to remediating an environmental problem, but turned a liability into an asset, the company said.

Meanwhile, Orbite had recently also received notification that the CIPO had granted and issued a Canadian patent for its process for extracting aluminium from aluminous ores. This patent, and the one related to red mud, would give Orbite the exclusive rights to use the inventions exclusively for 20 years.

“The uniqueness of the Orbite process is clearly validated by our growing portfolio of intellectual property rights. Consequently, we are well positioned to advance our efforts to commercialise this breakthrough technology and help convert continuously growing stockpiles of environmental liabilities into valuable assets,” CEO Glenn Kelly said.

The company’s stock rose 13.11% on the TSX on Thursday to C$0.345 apiece.