Excelsior says Nuton’s proprietary technology offers the potential to produce additional copper in a cost-effective manner, delivering significant environmental benefits by reducing waste from new and ongoing operations. I said I’m sure.

The first phase of the collaboration will see Nuton complete testing work on materials collected from its Johnson Camp mining project to ensure that the right conditions exist for deploying the heap leaching technology.

Assuming this testing effort is successful, the parties will move forward to negotiate commercial terms for the full-scale deployment of Nuton technology at the Johnson Camp mine.

Test work is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2023, and commercial terms may be negotiated during the third quarter of 2023, depending on test results and other factors, Excelsior said. .

The Johnson Camp Mine has historically been a heap reach operation since the 1970s. This includes two open pits, a two stage crushing-agglomeration circuit and a fully functional Solvent Extraction-Electrowinning (SX-EW) plant capable of producing 25 million pounds of copper cathode per year.

Excelsior is currently considering the reopening of the Burro and Copper Chief pits mined by Nord Resources in 2010 to produce undermining material that can be placed in new leaching pads as a means of extracting copper from the remaining mineral resources. increase. in two pits.

The company also owns and operates the Gunnison Copper Project in Arizona. This is a low-cost, environmentally friendly, on-site recovery copper extraction project that is licensed to produce 125 million pounds of copper cathodes per year.