Rio Tinto Plc (NYSE:RIO) on Thursday disclosed a two-year strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
With this deal, AWS, which will become the first customer of Nuton Technology.
This follows the recent industrial-scale deployment of its innovative bioleaching process at the Johnson Camp copper mine in the U.S. last month.
Gunnison Copper's Johnson Camp mine in Arizona is now the lowest-carbon primary copper producer in the U.S., based on the mine-to-refined-metal metric.
The project aims to produce around 30,000 tonnes of refined copper over four years.
Partnership Details
AWS will incorporate the first copper produced by Nuton into its U.S. data center components, while providing cloud-based analytics to help refine Nuton's bioleaching technology at Gunnison Copper's Johnson Camp mine.
Nuton uses AWS platforms to model heap-leach performance and feed advanced analytics into its decision-making systems, improving copper recovery and optimizing acid and water use.
Its modular bioleaching process harnesses naturally occurring microorganisms to extract copper from primary sulphide ores, and when paired with digital tools, allows rapid scaling and adaptation to different ore types, accelerating the path from development to production.
The process produces 99.99% pure copper on-site, eliminating smelters and refineries and accelerating the supply chain. It also uses less water, reduces carbon emissions, and recovers copper from ore once considered waste.
Management Commentary
Rio Tinto CEO Katie Jackson called the collaboration “a powerful example of how industrial innovation and cloud technology can combine to deliver cleaner, lower-carbon materials at scale.”
Bringing Nuton copper into AWS's U.S. data-center supply chain can “strengthen domestic resilience” and “secure the critical materials those facilities need, closer to where they're used,” she added.
Amazon's Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst added that as the company expands its data center operations, securing access to lower-carbon materials produced close to home strengthens its supply chain resilience as well as its ability to “decarbonize at scale."
Rio Tinto-BHP Deal
On Wednesday, Rio Tinto disclosed it collaborated with BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) for extracting up to 200 million tonnes of iron ore from their neighboring Yandicoogina and Yandi operations in the Pilbara.
Price Action: RIO shares are up 0.10% at $85.97 at the last check on Thursday.
