Startup SiTration to Recover Copper from Old Mine Water
Technology startup SiTration is launching a pilot project in Arizona to extract copper from the water in a closed-pit mine left over from the 1980s. The project aims to validate the technology in a natural setting and produce commercial copper.
SiTration, a startup spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has launched a pilot project in central Arizona to recover copper from water in an abandoned open-pit mine that closed in the 1980s. The company announced that a two-month pilot will yield two tons of copper from the pit water.
According to CEO Brendan Smith, the pilot will test SiTration's electro-deposition technology, which uses electricity without chemicals or heat. The process extracts copper directly from the water and plates it onto electrode sheets, making it ready for market without further refining. Smith estimates the process uses five to six times less energy than traditional ore mining and refining.
The project is a collaboration with BHP Copper, a major mining company and an investor in SiTration. The former Copper Cities mine in Arizona produced hundreds of thousands of tons of copper over decades before its closure. These closed pit lakes, filled with rainwater and groundwater, still contain significant mineral concentrations leached from the mine walls.
Global demand for copper is surging due to its use in electric vehicles, electronics, and the power grid. Experts predict a copper shortfall of up to 10 million metric tons by 2040. Concurrently, the grade of mined copper ore has declined significantly, making existing sources like mine water increasingly attractive.
SiTration believes that vast amounts of valuable minerals are trapped in mining waste and legacy mine sites, offering an economically and environmentally sound recovery opportunity. The company states that globally, approximately $100 billion worth of copper is currently accessible in liquid form from old mine waters.