Warsaw-listed financial and investment company Virtus Group has set up offices in British Columbia to help recover metals from post-mining and armament waste using a unique technology.
The company aims to build a portfolio of projects within six months and list on the TSX-V.
Virtus estimates there are about 10 000 abandoned mines in Canada, while active mines generate about 650-million tonnes of extractive waste every year. These are important sources of critical minerals such as nickel.
In turn, industrial and military waste is often rich in copper and zinc, which, using a technology developed by Polish professor, electrochemist and expert in extractive metallurgy Dr Hab Przemysław Łoś, can be efficiently and profitably recovered.
Virtus explains that for every tonne of extracted metal there are between 20 t and 200 t of solid waste. It estimates that in Sudbury region of Ontario alone there are between 80-million and 100-million tonnes of pyrrhotite waste grading 0.8% nickel, the value of which is billions of Canadian dollars.
Virtus is conducting a review of dumps in Canada until the end of February 2027, with samples being tested with the recovery technology.
The company aims to present the results from its review by March, after which it will make a decision whether to list in Toronto.
For Virtus, expanding its operations in Canada is also a test of the scalability of its recovery technology and an opportunity to build an ecosystem of mutually reinforcing projects.