Cycladex has completed construction of a production facility in the US that will use the company's novel gold recovery technology.

Cycladex said the facility, the company's first in the US, would use a patented gold recovery process that reduces the operating and capital costs for mines by 30-50%.

"[This facility] will support the expanded use of Cycladex technology in the Americas and give mining operators another tool to safely improve mineral recovery," said Roger Pettman, executive chairman of Cycladex.

The company uses a novel, patented chemical process to recover precious metals by cutting leach time from 30 hours to 6 hours on average.

THe process was developed by Nobel Prize winner, Sir Fraser Stoddart, Director of the Center for the Chemistry of Integrated Systems at Northwestern University, according to Cycladex's website.

The development of the technology was supported by the National Science Foundation SBIR program and from investors in the UK

The company added that it has also developed a new metal isolation technology, which separates contaminants from ore and recycles them into construction materials.

The mining by-products can be used in the production of bricks, roofing tiles and other construction materials.

Pettman said new materials were a "sustainable" option in a variety of infrastructure builds. "When you discover a way to make a useable material from the by-products of a manufacturing process - especially when you're turning something hazardous into a sustainable solution - it's a great gain for any industry. " 

Last July, Cycladex completed scale-up trials of its cyanide-free gold recovery process in Arizona with Triple 7 Mining.