Posted by Daniel Gleeson on January 18, 2023

Excelsior Mining says it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Rio Tinto venture Nuton LLC to evaluate the use of Nuton copper heap leaching technology at Excelsior’s Johnson Camp mine in Cochise County, Arizona, USA .

Rio Tinto developed Nuton technology. Nuton Technology is a broad portfolio of advanced copper heap leaching technologies for primary sulfide minerals (including low-grade minerals) that cannot be processed by conventional leaching or sulfidation technology. These technologies offer the potential to produce additional copper in a cost-effective manner. This has significant environmental benefits and reduces waste from new and ongoing operations.

The Excelsior agreement is in addition to similar agreements Nuton has signed with Regulus Resources, McEwen Copper, Lion Copper and Gold Corp and Arizona Sonoran Copper Company.

The first phase of the collaboration will see Nuton complete specific testing work on materials collected from its Johnson Camp mining project to ensure that the right conditions exist for deploying Nuton technology. Assuming this testing effort is successful, the parties will move forward to negotiate commercial terms for the full-scale deployment of his Nuton technology at the Johnson Camp Mine.

Testing work is expected to begin during the March quarter 2023, with a view to potentially negotiating commercial terms depending on test results and other factors during the September quarter 2023.

Excelsior is a mineral exploration and production company that owns and operates the Gunnison Copper Project in Cochise County, Arizona. The project is a field recovery copper extraction project with a permitted 125 million pounds (56,699 tonnes) of copper cathode production per year. Excelsior also owns a portfolio of exploration projects, including the former production Johnson Camp Mine and the Peabody Sill, Strong and Harris deposits.