OZ Minerals’ Think & Act Differently team and EnviroCopper Ltd are collaborating to investigate InSitu copper recovery breakthroughs at EnviroCopper’s project at Kapunda, north of Adelaide.
A statement released by OZ Minerals has revealed the company has committed $2.5 million for over 18 months to pursue research into the potential economic extraction of copper deposits at the Kapunda project through InSitu Recovery (ISR). EnviroCopper previously collaborated on the project with CSIRO and the University of Adelaide as part of a CRC-P grant (Commonwealth Research Centre-Project).
“The aim is to understand the economic extraction of copper from deposits that cannot be mined conventionally due to hydrogeology and social factors, and Kapunda is a prime example,” EnviroCopper Business Manager Philippa Faulkner said.
ISR mining is a low-footprint method of recovering copper and gold deposits. It consists of a series of injection and extraction bores that circulate lixiviant (environmentally matched solution) that rinses copper from the ore body.
“There are 900 copper occurrences in South Australia, many amenable to the ISR process. EnviroCopper is looking at just four of these occurrences with South Australia, amounting to potentially 2.5MtCu,” EnviroCopper Managing Director and Geologist Leon Faulkner stated.
Local community engagement has been a significant focus of the work in Kapunda throughout the years due to the existing mine being a tourism destination. Work undertaken by the CSRP has revealed favourable community attitudes about ISR and a reinvigorated mining economy in town.
The partnership between OZ Minerals and EnviroCopper will further complement the work to develop an economical copper ISR demonstration site at Kapunda. It will allow both companies to use similar approaches to explore undervalued orebodies.
“Through the Think & Act Differently innovation team, OZ Minerals is investigating ISR to contribute to low footprint concepts of operations. We are pleased to be able to partner with Enviro Copper to further develop this technology for metals extraction,” OZ Minerals General Manager Katie Hulmes said.
