Soaring demand for copper will help drive mergers, BHP CEO says
Demand for copper, a key element in the energy transition, is set to rise by 70% to 100% by 2050, Mike Henry said
OZ Minerals (ASX: OZL) partnered with fellow Australian tech company Unearthed to launch Ingenious Extraction, an incubator challenge aimed at finding new, low-impact ways to extract metals like copper, gold, silver and cobalt from the miner’s concentrates.
“We have an aspiration to produce products with a very small environmental footprint and to create as much value as we can for all of our stakeholders,” OZ said in a media statement.
The challenge is open to receiving ideas on a new entire process, a part of a process, a piece of equipment or a new reagent scheme
“This means eliminating carbon emissions along the entire value chain, reducing water consumption and minimising the waste that we produce. So, we are exploring alternative ways for producing metal products directly from copper concentrate onsite at our operations.”
According to the Adelaide-based company, the challenge is open to receiving ideas on, for example, a new entire process, a part of a process, a piece of equipment or a new reagent scheme. Both early-stage and novel concepts, as well as commercially ready solutions, are encouraged.
Once the teams go through the incubator, the best proposals will be selected for acceleration.
Early submission deadline is set for March 12, 2021 11:59 p.m. AWST.
OZ Minerals is Australia’s third-largest copper producer. It owns and operates the Prominent Hill copper-gold operation and the Carrapateena underground copper mine in South Australia, the West Musgrave nickel-copper project in Western Australia, as well as other assets in Brazil.
