A quiet revolution is unfolding in the mining sector

The world is going to need a lot of copper and other critical metals if it is going to pivot away from fossil fuels. But can the mining industry deliver?

- 

The challenges are huge. Ore grades at existing copper mines are steadily falling, big new discoveries are becoming rarer and development times can stretch up to a decade.

Part of the solution is to increase the efficiency of the mining process, which has historically been both highly polluting and wasteful.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

The world dug up 650 million metric tonnes of copper between 1910 and 2010 but 100 million tonnes never made it to market, according to a 2020 research paper by Germany's Fraunhofer Institute.

All that metal is still there lying in tailings ponds, a potentially massive resource awaiting the right technology to unlock it.

Rio Tinto has already successfully separated critical metals such as scandium and tellurium from waste streams at existing operations. Others are now looking at ways to extract value from the vast legacy of past mining activity.

Hudbay Minerals, for example, is evaluating the potential for re-mining tailings at the Flin Flon site in Canada’s Manitoba. The mine closed in 2022, leaving nearly a century's worth of minerals-rich waste.

Australia’s Cobalt Blue Holdings, which has been collaborating on the Flin Flon project, has also signed an agreement with the Mount Isa city council in Queensland to explore reworking pyrite tailings as a potential alternative source of sulphur once the town’s copper smelter closes.