Toronto, Canada: BacTech Environmental Corporation (CSE:BAC, OTC:BCCEF) today announced its plans for the current year with respect to the Ecuador project. BacTech has identified the Ponce Enriquez area of southern Ecuador as an area where the Company’s bioleaching technology can be deployed for environmental processing of locally produced concentrates. Given the high levels of arsenic contained in the ore from the area, miners receive depressed prices for their concentrates due to penalties applied by the buyers. The buyers tend to be from Asia whereby concentrates are shipped for conventional smelting and/or roasting. The concentrates are subject to a 3% royalty on the gold value payable to the government of Ecuador. As well, shipping and handling add to the costs of pursuing this avenue. BacTech believes it can offer superior pricing for these concentrates, employment opportunities and payment of local and federal taxes. It should be noted that the final arsenic product produced from bioleaching, ferric arsenate, is a US, Environmental Protection Agency approved land fillable form of arsenic. Plans for 2020 The anticipated capacity for the proposed plant would be 40 tonnes per day of arsenopyrite and refractory pyrite concentrates. At this stage the Company will be pursuing its goals with 100% ownership but BacTech would consider a joint venture partner going forward. An Ecuadorian company would be our preference. In the above chart we can see that the first step in the process involves identifying suitable concentrates for which a detailed bioleach test program would be undertaken. In previous visits to Ponce Enriquez the Company identified 2 mines, both of which produce approximately 15 tons per day. The estimated time to complete the test work is 16-20 weeks after which BacTech would know the anticipated gold recovery percentage as well as a good understanding of the flow sheet for the plant. During this period BacTech would begin the process to obtain permits for the plant. Applications will be made to the Ministries of Mining and Environment, for approval of a water usage license, and tailings approval for the post bioleach residues. There will also be consultation with the municipal government with respect to land acquisition and approval for building permits for the plant. It should be noted that Ponce Enriquez is a very active mining area with over 90 producing mines of various size and we do not expect to face local opposition given the environmental and economic benefits associated with our project. If the results of the bioleach test work are acceptable BacTech would begin a combination of a pre-feasibility followed by a bankable feasibility study. It should be noted that these studies are for a commercial operating plant and do not involve any aspects of underground development or mining. For this reason, the study should be relatively straight forward and less costly than a full-blown bankable study. Using the flow sheet developed during the bioleach test work the final piece of this phase of the project would be detailed engineering. It is our intent to rely heavily on the designs from previous plants that BacTech has designed. We estimate that the cost to get the project to a “shovel ready” state will cost approximately US$800,000. The actual cost for construction, procurement and material is estimated to be $US7.5M with a 20% variance based on costs from past projects. The detailed engineering will allow the company to reduce the variance in cost. The estimated time to complete the prebuild studies is approximately 12 months with the permitting being the longest part of the process. At the end of this process BacTech would actively pursue contractual concentrate feeds from local sources and quite possibly from other countries such as Peru. If the Company successfully completes the initial plant, it is conceivable we will attract enough material to exceed the plants capacity. This could lead to an expansion as the plants are modular in nature. About Arsenic The effects of exposure to arsenic include increased risks of lung and bladder cancer and skin changes in people ingesting arsenic in drinking water at concentrations of 50 µg/litre, or even lower. Exposure to arsenic in the workplace by inhalation can also cause lung cancer. To put what BacTech is proposing in Ecuador in perspective, based on a 40 tonne per day plant treating concentrates grading 10% arsenic, we can calculate the amount of arsenic that will be stabilized and/or not roasted to create arsenic trioxide.  40 tpd X 10% = 4 tpd or 1,400 tonnes (>30,000,000 pounds) of arsenic per annum. This is for one stand-alone plant. In addition, by using bioleaching over smelting/roasting we avoid the creation of sulphur dioxide emissions into the atmosphere created by burning sulphide mineralization.