EXPLORATION ’93 — New copper-production process

Backers of the revolutionary Hydromet copper-production process are planning to build an A$8-million demonstration plant at Port Kembla, Australia.

The process reportedly has the potential to extract LME-grade copper and other base metals from sulphide ores at a much lower cost than smelting and refining.

Supporters of Intec Copper, which will develop the process, include BHP Minerals, Western Mining, RTZ, Magma Copper, Nippon Mining, Sumitomo Mining, Dowa Mining and Marubeni of Japan; they will have a combined 50% interest. Intec Pty Ltd. has a 43.5% interest and merchant bank Resource Finance Corp. the remaining 6.5% interest.

Metals Bulletin also reported that A$2.5 million has been secured by Intec Pty to be used in part for the construction of a small pilot plant at Sydney and to help pay for the design of the demonstration plant.