Amazon Web Services to become first Nuton Technology customer, Rio Tinto says
Rio Tinto has announced a strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that will see AWS become Nuton® Technology’s first customer following the breakthrough industrial-scale deployment of the innovative bioleaching technology at the Johnson Camp copper mine in the US last month.
Under the two-year agreement, AWS will use the first Nuton copper ever produced in components of its US data centres, while also providing cloud-based data and analytics support to accelerate the optimisation of Nuton’s proprietary bioleaching technology at Gunnison Copper’s Johnson Camp mine. Data centres use copper in a wide variety of applications, including electrical cables and busbars, windings in transformers and motors, printed circuit boards and heat sinks on processors.
Nuton is also using AWS platforms to simulate heap-leach performance and feed advanced analytics into Nuton’s decision systems, allowing for optimised acid and water use while improving predictions for copper recovery. Its modular bioleaching system works by extracting copper from primary sulphide ores using naturally occurring microorganisms, the company says. This approach, combined with digital tools, enables rapid scaling and tailoring of the technology to different orebodies, reducing the pathway from concept to production.
The process produces 99.99% pure copper cathode at the mine gate and removes the need for traditional concentrators, smelters and refineries, significantly shortening the mine-to-market supply chain, Rio Tinto says. Nuton is projected to use substantially less water and have lower carbon emissions compared with conventional concentrator processing routes, while also recovering value from ore previously classified as waste.
Last month, Rio Tinto announced it had successfully produced the first copper cathode from the Johnson Camp mine in Arizona using its Nuton Technology. The deployment at the Gunnison Copper-owned operation involves the design and delivery of a technology package for a heap leach pad targeting production of approximately 30,000 t of refined copper over a four-year demonstration period.
Rio Tinto Copper Chief Executive, Katie Jackson, said: “This collaboration is a powerful example of how industrial innovation and cloud technology can combine to deliver cleaner, lower-carbon materials at scale. Nuton has already proven its ability to rapidly move from idea to industrial production and AWS’s data and analytics expertise will help us to accelerate optimisation and verification across operations.
“Importantly, by bringing Nuton copper into AWS’s US data-centre supply chain, we’re helping to strengthen domestic resilience and secure the critical materials those facilities need, closer to where they’re used. Together we can supply the copper critical to modern data infrastructure while demonstrating how mining can contribute to more sustainable supply chains.”
Amazon’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Kara Hurst, said: “Amazon’s Climate Pledge goal to reach net zero carbon by 2040 requires us to innovate across every part of our operations, including how we source the materials that power our infrastructure.
“This collaboration with Nuton Technology represents exactly the kind of breakthrough we need – a fundamentally different approach to copper production that helps reduce carbon emissions and water use. As we continue to invest in next-generation carbon-free energy technology and expand our data centre operations, securing access to lower-carbon materials produced close to home strengthens both our supply chain resilience and our ability to decarbonise at scale.”
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