Nippon Goes for Bio and Chemical Copper Mining in Chile

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). In mid 2002 Nippon Mining and Minerals reached an agreement with Codelco, to set up a company to develop biotechnology for copper mining in the belief that the techniques would be important for future sustainability and reducing costs in the mining industry.

BioSigma was capitalized with $2 million from Codelco and $1 million from Nippon. One of the techniques in the joint development of mining technology between the two companies is the use of acid producing bacteria to recover metals. Biotech methods are used to improve recycling of such items as electronic parts.

In a new development for Nippon in Chile the company plans to build a copper smelting facility in Chile to test technology that would enable the company to smelt ore with chemicals instead of using a furnace. By setting up a test facility in Chile, the world's largest producer of copper, Nippon aims to establish a foothold in the South American country as it considers the options in creating a corporate base in Chile. Nippon is looking to secure favorable ore prices by constructing the plant adjacent to rich sources of copper ore.

The Japanese firm is planning a plant capable of producing 50,000 tons of copper ingots a year by using chemicals to extract copper from the ores. When compared to the furnace based method of extracting copper the use of chemicals requires far less energy consumption. Detailed plans for the plant are under development and construction work could start in 2003.

The company is currently researching the technology in Japan and is looking to commercialize the technology for mass production applications. Nippon's development partner Mitsui Mining and Smelting (J.MTM/5706) (Tokyo, Japan) will be invited to participate in the Chilean project.