Amazon and Rio Tinto Nuton copper deal: process and ESG notes for mine engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Amazon Web Services will be the first offtaker for copper produced using Rio Tinto venture Nuton’s proprietary bioleaching technology at the Johnson Camp mine in Arizona, under a two-year supply deal for US data centres. The open-pit, heap-leach operation, run by Gunnison Copper, has a planned 15–20 year life and 25 million lb/year capacity, with Nuton’s process using microorganisms to leach sulphide ores and eliminating milling, tailings, smelting and refining. Nuton reports up to 85% recovery, potential 80% water and 60% carbon reductions, while AWS will provide cloud analytics to optimise acid and water use and speed scale-up across different ore bodies.
Technical Brief
- Nuton has invested about $100 million in technology deployment and construction at Johnson Camp, repaid from copper sales.
- The Gunnison–Nuton technology partnership runs for five years, with an option to convert into a joint venture thereafter.
- First Nuton-based copper cathodes at Johnson Camp were produced in December, moving the project into a validation phase.
- AWS’s cloud analytics will be used to tune leach performance parameters, particularly acid dosage and water balance.
- Digital performance data will be used to adapt the bioleach operating envelope to different sulphide ore bodies more quickly.
- Copper demand from data centres is flagged as a specific AI-related load, spanning cabling, busbars, transformers, PCBs and processor heat sinks.
Our Take
Among the 623 Mining stories in our database, very few feature downstream tech users like Amazon and AWS taking specified low‑carbon copper from assets such as Johnson Camp in Arizona, signalling that hyperscale data-centre operators are starting to influence mine‑level process choices rather than just buying renewable power.
The Nuton deployment at the JCM and Gunnison mines in the US sits alongside a small cluster of copper and lithium items in our coverage where water‑use and carbon cuts of this order are being pursued, suggesting that projects able to demonstrate quantified reductions in both are better positioned to attract climate‑aligned capital like Canada Growth Fund and Breakthrough Energy LLC.
With a 15–20 year mine life and a defined two‑year offtake window for AWS, JCM’s Nuton copper effectively gives Amazon a medium‑term test bed for lower‑carbon metals procurement ahead of its 2040 net‑zero target, a model other OEMs such as BMW (also present in this ecosystem via BMW AG’s i Ventures) are likely to watch closely for their own supply‑chain decarbonisation strategies.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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