EXCLUSIVE. A ROMANIAN BUSINESS MAN AND A LATVIAN PHYSICIST COULD HELP ELIMINATE THE USE OF CYANIDES The revolution in the mining industry could begin in Bucharest

A Romanian businessman and a Latvian physicist are about to revolutionize the world mining industry, after they recently registered their invention with the European Patent Office (EPO) of Geneva.

Nicolae Costache is the name of the Romanian originating from Bucharest who manages several mining concessions in Africa and who financed the research of the Latvian physician - B. Voldemars. The researcher resides in Africa, but was born in Riga - the capital of Latvia.

The two met on the coast of Western Africa, from where Nicolae Costache has been running his business for approximately six years, and then began their collaboration on a very ambitious project: patenting a new technology for the extraction of precious and strategic metals from any type of ore, without using cyanides or any other toxic substances.

The application to register the patent in Geneva was submitted on June 1, 2010, on behalf of the two men, by Swiss Law firm "Katzarov", specializing in Intellectual Property Law. The registration of the invention in Geneva occurred just three weeks after the European Parliament passed the bill prohibiting the use of cyanides in mining operations. This has exponentially increased the value of their invention, even though it was very valuable to begin with.

Major mining groups quickly got in on the act, starting intense negotiations to acquire the rights to the new invention.

The European Commission later toned down its stance on the matter, by stating that there was no need for a full prohibition of the use of cyanides in mining (because the European norms in this respect were rather strict), but this did not dent the interest for the new invention.

The Romanian business man claims the secrecy of his patent claim is due to the need to keep the "technological secret". A reason which is perfectly logical, given the potential financial impact of their new invention, which is now in the final testing stage.

BURSA has obtained exclusively, in Geneva, the applications filed to the EPO for the new patent, as well as part of the mail between law firm "Katzarov" and its two clients.

Contacted by "BURSA", Nicolae Costache was very reluctant to speak about the new mining technology which he is looking to patent. He considers that for now, economic secrecy is a strategic need in this case, or as he artfully put it: "Imagine that the CEO of Halliburton (famous American corporation -ed. note) finds out that some smart lad in the countryside has invented a car that works on water instead of gas. Who do you think will disappear first, the young man or his invention?"

After lengthy discussions, both Costache as well as the Latvian Voldemars agreed to give us a short interview.

• The invention

The name of the invention registered by Nicolae Costache - B. Voldemars with the European Patent Office of Geneva sounds rather grandiloquent: "The Voldemars-Costache method for extracting noble metals and other elements through ore disintegration and through the repeated use of a non-toxic technological process". In short, the solution created by the two, proposes the utilization of new physico-chemical processes in the mining industry.

Essentially, the invention consists of using high frequency equipment for breaking down the natural materials into basic particles. After the breaking down of the ore into primary elements, they would be separated based on their chemical properties.

The process has four main stages, programmed by the device patented in Geneva. High frequency is used in each of these four stages. Depending on the properties of the material, disintegration can require from 1 to 10 cycles, and the entire process can last from 30 minutes to 10 hours. This allows the recovery of the various types of materials in the ore, each with its individual properties (density, mass etc.), going from noble metals (gold, silver), to strategic metals (uranium, thorium, wolfram, titanium, columbite, strontium etc.)

The two promoters of the invention are banking on its technical benefits: "The method has industrial applicability, is cheap and can extract as much 95-99.9% of the noble metals in any type of ore."

Nicolae Costache considers that the social benefits are of the invention are just as important: "No toxic substances are used at any of the four technological stages of the disintegration of the ore, such as the controversial cyanide. Our method is 100% ecological".

B. Voldemars completes the statements of his Romanian partner, speaking didactically: "For instance, platinum, titanium and thorium (which is expected to become the main nuclear fuel in the future), are obtained through an extremely costly and lengthy industrial process, which also has a low yield. Using the method we invented, this as well as other important metals, which are hard to extract using conventional methods, can be extracted by repeating the initial disintegration process, but, and I must repeat that, depending on the physical properties of the material. Our technology, which has been tested and works regardless of temperature or of the composition of the ore, can efficiently extract precious as well as strategic metals".

• The solution for the Roşia Montană mining concession

Voldemars has also studied the situation in Romania.

He is familiar with the sensitive issues which are the object of public controversy, including Roşia Montană, which hosts one of the largest unexploited gold deposits in the world. The solution proposed for the exploitation of that gold deposit, involved the use of cyanides, which can affect the environment in the area, and it has caused a huge scandal which has lasted for the last ten years.

The Latvian physicist says that the solution created by him and his associate can be successfully used to exploit that gold deposit: "Indeed, it can be used in the hydrothermal mining deposit of Roşia Montană. This will allow meeting all the environmental standards, and help the company that holds the concession make a bigger profit."