Update: Newlox Gold Admits to Toxic Cyanide UseBreaking News: Canadian Junior Resource Company, and Self-Proclaimed “Green Gold Producer” Newlox Gold Admits to Toxic Cyanide Use at its Costa Rican Based Operation.
October 28, 2021, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Self-proclaimed “eco-friendly” and “environmentally responsible” junior gold miner, Newlox Gold, who has been broadly endorsing itself, and its technologies, as a “green and safe” alternative to toxic cyanide, has recently been discovered to be covertly using a high-intensity cyanide process at its Costa Rica-based mining operation.
In a recent presentation at the Planet Gold Conference, Newlox advisor and research division Chairman, Dr. Marcello Mariz Veiga delivered extensive details on the company's cyanide-based process being used at its small-scale Costa Rica mining operation. According to Prof. Veiga, the company uses a combination of conventional placer mining techniques and gravity and flotation separation processes to produce a gold concentrate which is then subjected to intensive cyanidation. There was no description, inclusion, or mention of a cyanide destruct circuit or long-term environmental monitoring plan disclosed in the 30-minute presentation. The company has also never reported details, conclusions, or recommendations of any requisite cyanide-related environmental impact studies.
The company has been relentlessly promoting the environmental benefits and research results of its purported "eco-friendly", and “natural” reagents under research which are reportedly based on extractions from cassava roots and/or DMSO-based Organic Aqua Regia. The on-site application and usage of these “eco-friendly” reagents have been inferred by the company on numerous occasions, but as recently reported, this research has been limited to early-stage lab-scale studies with no estimate as to pilot-scale, bulk testing, or eventual commercial viability.
Over the last eight years, the company has intentionally neglected to disclose its long-term testing and use of cyanide, nor has it ever mentioned the use of cyanide in any of its disclosure, or on its website, literature, or investor presentations. This would appear to be a deliberate omission or continued misrepresentation of a potential material fact to mislead the investment community. Some ESG or eco-friendly-focused investors may choose to exclude mining companies that use cyanide from their portfolios. To deliberately target this group in aggressive promotional campaigns without providing them with plain, transparent, and honest disclosure of contrary corporate practices amputates the ability for an investor to make an informed and educated assessment of their chosen ESG-focussed investments.
The company’s open admission to the use of cyanide also appears to be in direct contravention of the explicit 2010 Costa Rican national legislative ban on the use of cyanide. Newlox company executives and Costa Rican authorities have been queried on the validity of the company’s claims of approved cyanide permits with no response at the time of writing.
The damaging effect of a self-proclaimed, “environmentally responsible” resource company that blatantly omits or disingenuously misrepresents its prolonged use of cyanide from the public irresponsibly casts a shadow on the entire resource sector as it genuinely strives to reduce its environmental impact, and enhance its public transparency, and social profile on a global basis.