New tech for Australia’s untapped copper: cut-off grade impacts for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
A breakthrough electrochemical processing technology for low‑grade copper ores has secured $5 million in Federal Government funding in Australia. The process targets previously uneconomic resources, aiming to recover copper from low‑grade and complex deposits that conventional flotation and smelting struggle to treat. If scaled, the technology could materially change project cut‑off grades, extend mine lives at existing operations, and open new deposits in underexplored Australian copper provinces.
Technical Brief
- If successful, similar electrochemical circuits could later be adapted for nickel, cobalt and polymetallic sulphide tailings.
Our Take
Copper pieces in our database increasingly sit under both ‘Projects’ and ‘Sustainability’ tags, signalling that Australian developments are now commonly framed around lower-impact extraction or processing rather than just new tonnage.
Within the 268 copper‑linked items in our coverage, Australia features frequently as a jurisdiction where permitting and social licence constraints are pushing operators to consider technologies that can economically treat lower‑grade or previously uneconomic resources.
For practitioners, new technology aimed at Australia’s untapped copper resources is likely to be tested first in brownfield settings, where existing infrastructure and approvals can de‑risk deployment compared with greenfield copper projects highlighted elsewhere in the Mining corpus.
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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