en.Wedoany.com Reported - On July 14, BQE Water Inc. announced a partnership with Centerra Gold Inc. to restart the water treatment plant at the Kemess project in northern British Columbia, Canada. The plant was built and briefly operated in 2020, primarily treating selenium pollution from mine-impacted water.

To support the development of the new Kemess copper-gold deposit, BQE Water secured a contract in 2019 to design and operate a water treatment plant using the Selen-IX process. The plant has a treatment capacity of 65 liters per second (5,600 cubic meters per day), with total selenium concentrations in the treated effluent below two parts per billion. The plant was built and fully commissioned in 2020, operating successfully for several months under a five-year operations service agreement. Due to the successful first full-scale implementation of the Selen-IX process, the Kemess project received an Environmental Award from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (EGBC) in 2021.

Following changes in the new mine development plan, the water treatment plant was subsequently placed into care and maintenance. The operations service agreement was amended accordingly, with the BQE Water team maintaining the facility as a viable asset through annual site visits, while the original term of the agreement remained unchanged.

In response to a request from Centerra earlier this year, BQE Water developed a restart plan for the water treatment plant, including recommissioning. The plant is expected to begin seasonal operations in late summer 2026. Given the shorter operating season this year, BQE Water will provide commissioning and operations services in 2026 under a change order, achieving this year's project objectives without reducing the remaining term of the operations service agreement.

David Kratochvil, President and CEO of BQE Water, expressed excitement about resuming operations at the Kemess plant. The project will enable the company to leverage the experience and expertise gained from managing four Selen-IX plants outside British Columbia over the years, supporting the province's industry-leading management of selenium treatment.

BQE Water is a specialized company providing water treatment and management services for metal mining, smelting, and refining. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, it is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol BQE.