INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
IMAGE: OZ MINERALS.
COPPER COLLABORATION TO SAVE A PRECIOUS RESOURCE
OZ MINERALS’ PROMINENT HILL COPPER-GOLD MINE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
A NEW ROADMAP TOWARDS ZERO-EMISSION COPPER MINING HAS BEEN DEVELOPED THROUGH COLLABORATION IN THE MINING INDUSTRY. THE FIRST AVENUE TO ACHIEVE THIS INVOLVES WATER AND THE BOFFINS BEHIND THE ROADMAP ARE DEVELOPING THE TOOLS TO TACKLE IT. HENRY BALLARD WRITES.
W
hile the volume of emissions from copper mining hardly compares with some more major commodities, the future of decarbonisation depends on the metal’s cleanliness. Several reports from the International Copper Association Australia (ICAA) over the past 15 years have identified that copper demand is rising at rates never seen before. BHP president of minerals for the Americas Ragnar Udd this year predicted copper demand will double in the next 30 years, with nickel to quadruple. To tackle the decarbonisation of copper mining, the ICAA released a report in May 2020, called Zero Emission Copper Mine of the Future, in conjunction with the University of Sydney’s Warren Centre of Advanced Engineering. The report details a roadmap towards decarbonised copper mining and five emission impact themes – discovery,
material movement, ventilation, mineral processing and water. Through a deep dive into each of these themes, the ICAA, its members and partners now look to develop a universal toolkit to provide current and future mine developers with the knowledge to achieve a universal goal – a zero-emission copper mine. ICAA chief executive officer John Fennell explains the logistics of the toolkit. “As we’re researching, we’ve been building a digital knowledge platform to provide an access point to chief technology officers, mine managers or mining executives as they find an issue in developing a new mine,” Fennell tells Australian Mining. “The learnings that come from various research programs can be seamlessly added to this knowledge platform, so everyone is kept up to date. “Then it’s up to industry to grab onto that and make it work. If they do it successfully, we’ll be able to identify some key technology challenges and breakthroughs which AUSTRALIANMINING
will allow industry to hasten the path towards zero emissions.” And there are plenty of stakeholders on the path for their own reasons. Communities, miners and governments alike will benefit from the improvement of each of the five emission impact themes in their own ways. But to give industry a place to dive into the concept, the ICAA believes there is no better theme to begin with than water. More recently, the ICAA commissioned another report, called the Water Report, which provides a breadth of information on the role of water in copper mining and six key innovation themes to deal with the responsible use, reuse and reduction of water resources. Clare Larkin Sykes, managing director of her namesake mining advisory, is a co-author on the Water Report and says this theme is as important as any due to its effects on everyone involved or nearby to copper mining. “In a broad sense, many copper
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operations globally do operate in areas of high-water stress and this is likely to face increased pressures in the future,” Larkin Sykes says. “These operations are also operating in a context of declining ore grades and deeper sulphide operations, which means that water and energy intensity is likely to increase.” Larkin Sykes says water must be increasingly recognised as a precious resource and treated as such. “There’s also a really strong social value on water in the regions where copper operations are likely to continue,” she says. “As a result, copper miners may face increased sensitivities in terms of the use and discharge of water.” The ICAA approached several of its members to become involved in the Water Report, with Anglo American and Sandfire Resources taking an opportunity to sponsor the project. Anglo American head of energy & storage Roland Berndt says the company was keen to build upon its strong platform of innovation. “We were approached by the ICAA
