Copper miners are turning to vast waste piles, novel extraction technologies and even bacterial “bugs” in an effort to increase production of the critical mineral that has surged in price.
BHP, Rio Tinto, Freeport-McMoRan and Vale Base Metals are among those researching and deploying new techniques to recover metal from old and disused sites, or from material previously viewed as too difficult to use.
Vicky Peacey, president of the giant Resolution mine being developed by Rio and BHP in Arizona, said extracting the once unrecoverable copper stored in giant waste mounds was the industry’s “holy grail”, while mining group VBM described it as “the next frontier”.
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