VANCOUVER—Industrial water treatment firm BioteQ has announced it is working with Chinas largest copper mining company to build a new $3.2-million water treatment plant at a mining site southwest of Shanghai.

The Vancouver-based company says it will be working on the project with Jiangxi Copper Company (JCC), with the two splitting the cost equally.

Located in southeastern China in the Jiangxi province, the Dexing Mine site produces over 100,000-tonnes of copper annually.

Designed to treat up to 24,000-cubic metres of water per day, the new plant will apply BioteQs patented ChemSulphide process to selecively recover copper from mine drainage, the company announced.

Annually, it is expected to treat approximately 4.6-million cubic metres of water and remove approximately 900,000-pounds of copper from the environment in a form that can be refined into useful products.

The copper concentrate will be sold to a JCC refinery at market prices, BioteQ announced, less transportation and refining costs.

This is the fourth water treatment project established between BioteQ and JCC.

In 2006, the two firms formed a joint venture to apply BioteQs technology at JCCs mine sites.

To date, the partners have designed, built and operated three water treatment plants at the Dexing mine site.

According to BioteQ, the plant is expected to be operational by July 2013.