Australian multinational mining giant BHP has struck a deal with leading American multinational technology company Microsoft.
The agreement aims to accelerate the production of advanced copper leaching solutions.
BHP Vice President innovation Jessica Farrell said the partnership has the potential to alter the methods and procedures BHP has long used to source its copper.
“As copper demand grows and new deposits become harder and more expensive to develop, improving recovery from existing ores is a critical lever to help meet future supply needs,” Farrell said.
“This partnership has given our technical experts the tools they need to narrow an almost infinite field of possibilities down to a small number of options that could one day be deployed in our global copper operations.”
In a recent statement, BHP described copper leaching as a “complex process” and discovering new innovative ways to recover the mineral from ore has been difficult.
Its partnership with Microsoft and Prescience Insilico led to tests to determine whether advanced computing could improve copper leaching.
The team used Microsoft Discovery, a platform designed to accelerate scientific R&D through computing and artificial intelligence agents, to speed up scientific discovery.
Microsoft Discovery corporate Vice President, production innovation Aseem Datar said BHP is leading the way in copper mining exploration and working together will be integral to discovering new ways to extract copper from ore.
“As the first mining partner on Microsoft Discovery, BHP is leading the way in exploring how advanced computing and scientific capabilities can help tackle complex industry challenges,” Datar said.
The BHP team screened more than half a million molecules that might help extract copper more efficiently.
This involved running tens of thousands of quantum chemistry calculations and simulations, narrowing the field to several molecules for testing by scientists in Australian laboratories.
“Those candidates are being tested against the realities of our ore bodies and operating constraints, so we are solving for what can actually work in practice,” Farrell said.
“This shows how technology and human expertise can be applied together to solve complex, real-world challenges.”
The project is also targeting sustainability benefits, including reduced toxicity and lower environmental impact, alongside improved recovery rates and lower costs.
