VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — (Marketwire) — 10/17/12 — BioteQ Environmental Technologies, Inc. (TSX: BQE), a leader in the treatment of industrial water and process solutions, has provided an update on plant operations and engineering activities for the third quarter of 2012.
Operations
BioteQ had three active water treatment operations contributing to revenue during the third quarter – plants in Arizona, Quebec, and China collectively treated 3.6 million cubic meters of water during the quarter, and removed over 850,000 pounds of metals from the environment, bringing total production for the first nine months of 2012 to over 2 million pounds of metal and 8.3 million cubic meters of water.
The Bisbee, Arizona operation produced approximately 142,000 pounds of copper and treated 285,000 cubic meters of water during the quarter, bringing total production to 369,000 pounds of copper and 722,000 cubic meters of water treated in the first nine months of the year. Revenues for this operation are based on the sale of copper recovered.
The Dexing operation produced approximately 716,000 pounds of copper and treated 2.8 million cubic meters of water during the third quarter, bringing total production to 1.65 million pounds of copper and 7.0 million cubic meters of water treated in the first nine months of the year. The plant is expected to undergo routine maintenance over a four week period in the fourth quarter. Revenues from this operation are based on the sale of copper recovered.
Together, the Bisbee and Dexing operations are on track to recover approximately 2.3 million pounds of copper in 2012.
The new Dexing ion exchange plant provided limited production of commercial quality cobalt-nickel product, due to continuing issues with the performance of a key reagent in the process. BioteQ and JCC have identified the cause of the performance issue, and are making appropriate upgrades to the plant. Management expects that the facility will ramp up to full production by early Q2 2013.
The Raglan, Quebec ChemSulphide® plant treated 562,000 cubic meters of water during the third quarter, bringing year-to-date treatment volumes to 623,000 cubic meters. Revenues for this seasonal operation are based on fees for the volume of water treated. The plant is expected to treat approximately 875,000 cubic meters of water during the 2012 season, slightly lower than originally forecast, due to lower than expected precipitation levels over the treatment season. This change is not expected to impact the Company–s financial guidance for 2012.
Sales & Engineering Projects
BioteQ–s sales team is actively pursuing new project opportunities in mining markets. The sales pipeline continues to grow and strengthen, as evidenced by new validation contracts that have recently been secured. Key highlights for the quarter:
Guidance
In March 2012, BioteQ–s management provided guidance on expected financial results for 2012 which indicated that the Company expected to grow revenues by at least 30% over 2011 to approximately $10 million, and to reduce cash use by at least 40% to less than $1.5 million. The Company remains on track with respect to the 2012 operations and financial guidance.
The Company expects to release its third quarter financial results on Monday November 12th. Details regarding the timing of the release and investor conference call will be provided a week prior to the release.
BioteQ Corporate Profile
BioteQ is an innovative clean technology leader in global industrial water treatment, serving the mining and energy markets. The company–s proven technologies have been applied at sites around the world to recover dissolved metals and remove sulphate, producing clean water and eliminating residual waste. BioteQ is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and trades on the TSX under the symbol BQE. Please visit our website at for additional information.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Certain information contained herein may not be based on historical fact and therefore constitutes “forward-looking information” under applicable Canadian securities legislation. This includes without limitation statements containing the words “plan”, “expect”, “project”, “estimate”, “intend”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “may”, “will” and other similar words or expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the Company–s dependence on key personnel and contracts, uncertainty with respect to the profitability of the Company–s technologies, competition, technology risk, the Company–s ability to protect its intellectual property and proprietary information, fluctuations in commodity prices, currency risk, environmental regulation and the Company–s ability to manage growth and other factors described in the Company–s filings with the Canadian securities regulators at (including without limitation the factors described in the section entitled “Risks and Uncertainties” in the Company–s Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2011 and the section entitled “Risk Factors” in the Company–s Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2011). Given these risks and uncertainties, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All forward-looking information contained herein is based on management–s current expectations and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update such forward-looking information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.
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Contacts:
BioteQ Environmental Technologies Inc.
Tanja McQueen
VP Corporate Development
604-685-1243 or 1-800-537-3073
604-685-7778 (FAX)