Companies leading the way in copper mining tech

More than half of the country’s coal mines are managed by pro-Russian separatist militia.

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The steadily growing demand for copper is prompting concerns around how this demand can be met in the most sustainable way, and different parts of the mining and metals industry are responding to this challenge in various ways. The circular economy – the idea of keeping resources in use for as long as possible and recovering reusable material from society’s waste streams – is an important concept for the metals supply chain, as recycled commodities help to supply the market while taking the pressure off limited natural deposits and reducing energy consumption when compared to traditional extraction projects.

Secondary copper is a good fit for recycling because it – like gold, silver and other non-ferrous metals – suffers no loss in quality from the process, making it infinitely repeatable. Hamburg-based Aurubis is one of the companies leading the charge on the recycling of copper and other metals.

The firm’s largest recycling plant in Lünen, Germany, uses only secondary raw materials as input to produce high-grade copper cathodes that Aurubis describes as indistinguishable from those that come from primary copper production. Input sources include copper cable scrap, waste electronics such as circuit boards and even industrial residues and slimes, which undergo processing, smelting and refining using the Kayser Recycling System.

While the recycling of secondary copper from waste streams will go some way towards relieving future supply shortages, it won’t be enough on its own, as copper flow modelling conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute has demonstrated. This is partly because of the aforementioned societal and population changes driving demand, and also because copper tends to remain in use for years or decades before becoming available for reprocessing.

So primary copper production will remain necessary for years to come, but how is the industry responding to changing expectations around sustainability? Mining giant BHP is looking to take a leading role in the environmental rehabilitation of copper, both in terms of direct savings in energy and water consumption, and in improving the transparency of the supply chain. The company is using data analytics to drive down freight emissions in its copper supply chain, and the massive new seawater desalination plant for the Escondida copper mine in Chile, which opened last year, is part of a broader plan to entirely eliminate freshwater usage at the mine by 2030.

“The copper industry already has ‘green’ credentials,” said BHP’s president of operations for the Americas Daniel Malchuk at April’s IWCC 2019 conference in Santiago. “But together, we can do more to put these under the spotlight and show a more discerning consumer that our products are both ethical and valuable.”

Chilean state-owned mining company Codelco is the largest copper producer in the world, controlling around 19% of the world’s total copper reserves and producing more than 1.6 million tonnes of the red metal (nearly 10% of global output) last year.

However, rising costs and declining ore grades at many of the company’s largest mines have been an increasing challenge for the copper giant, spurring massive investments such as the ongoing $5bn project to convert the huge Chuquicamata mine from an open-pit to an underground operation.

Codelco’s challenges do seem to have prompted a range of innovative technology deployments to improve efficiency and sustainability at the company’s operations in Chile. Like Rio Tinto, Codelco is increasingly emphasising automation in its mining fleets and processing facilities, and in April announced an agreement with long-time partner Sandvik to introduce fully automated loaders and predictive analytics to Chuquicamata’s new underground operations.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on the menu, too; this year the company started working with Uptake to deploy an AI-based system that will manage and predict the condition of much of its equipment and infrastructure.