Australian startup Loop Hydrometallurgy said its mine-site process can substantially cut emissions, reduce waste, and recover copper directly from underutilised resources.
Loop Hydrometallurgy, founded by hydrometallurgist Dave Sammut, has launched a pilot-scale electro-winning system capable of producing 20 kilograms of copper per day, marking a key step in its path to commercialisation.
The company, commericialising with the support of the Macquarie University Deeptech Incubator, has progressed the technology from laboratory concept to pilot-scale demonstration. The approach centres on a breakthrough in chloride-based hydrometallurgy, an area long considered promising but commercially unworkable due to difficulties in recovering metals from solution.
In conventional copper processing, ore is mined at low grades, often around 0.5 per cent, and upgraded through flotation to a concentrate of roughly 25 per cent copper before being shipped, typically offshore, for smelting and refining.
This multi-stage process is energy-intensive, transport-heavy, and can result in significant metal losses. Recovery rates can fall to 70 to 80 per cent, depending on ore complexity.
Rather than producing a smelter-grade concentrate, the company targets lower-grade “pre-concentrates,” around eight to 12 per cent copper, that are cheaper and easier to produce.
These materials, often considered unsuitable for traditional smelting, can then be processed on-site into high-purity metal.
“We say: don’t go all the way to a smelter grade,” Sammut said. “Produce a rougher concentrate and let us turn that into high-purity metal directly at the mine site.”
The result, he claimed, is a potential 30 to 40 per cent reduction in operating costs by eliminating transport, smelting charges, and associated penalties.
Solving a long-standing technical barrier
Chloride leaching systems have been studied for decades due to their ability to dissolve a wide range of metals efficiently. However, a critical bottleneck has been the inability to recover copper cleanly from these solutions.
“Again and again, these technologies proved the economics and environmental advantages,” Sammut said. “But nobody could work out an effective, practical way of recovering the copper from a chloride system. Until now.”
The challenge lies in how copper deposits during electro-winning. In chloride systems, it tends to form uncontrolled dendrites, tree-like structures that create handling and quality issues.
Loop’s technology addresses this by controlling how and where copper forms, producing what Sammut describes as a coarse, sand-like product that can be readily processed into standard forms such as rod, wire or ingot.
The breakthrough followed a “eureka moment” in 2021, after decades of research and industry investment failed to solve the issue.
“Within the first hour of running that prototype, we knew that we had cracked the problem,” Sammut said.
Scaling up: From pilot to production
The newly launched pilot, referred to as PEW20, will help advance the technology from laboratory validation to demonstration scale. A larger PEW200 unit, producing 200 kilograms per day, is planned for later this year.
Commercial deployment is targeted for 2027–28, with modular systems designed to scale via multiple electro-winning cells. A full-scale, trademarked, Halion Cell, is expected to produce around two tonnes of copper per day.
This modularity opens up potential beyond individual mine sites. Loop is exploring regional processing hubs, such as a proposed facility near Tennant Creek, where smaller miners could aggregate material for treatment.
“You don’t need a massive piece of infrastructure,” Loop commercial director Heath Warman said. “You can scale up or down depending on the resource.”
A key focus for Loop is material that falls outside conventional processing pathways, low-grade ores, polymetallic deposits, and arsenic-bearing concentrates that attract penalties or are rejected by smelters.
“There’s a lot of material that can’t be sold,” Sammut said. “We’re providing a pathway to monetise those resources.”
The process is also capable of recovering multiple metals, including copper, zinc, nickel, and precious metals, from a single feed, further improving project economics.
Importantly, arsenic can be stabilised into environmentally secure forms during processing, addressing a major constraint for many deposits.
Loop estimates its process could reduce carbon emissions by up to 80 per cent compared to traditional routes, driven by lower energy requirements, reduced transport, and fewer processing stages. The chemistry itself is also less energy intensive. According to Warman, the chloride system requires roughly half the electrical input of conventional sulphate-based electro-winning for the same copper output.
The process operates at atmospheric pressure and below 100°C, with no noxious gaseous emissions and a closed-loop reagent system that produces no liquid effluents.
While full lifecycle analysis is still pending, the company expects further gains when paired with renewable energy sources.
Industry adoption remains the next test
Despite strong early interest, Loop expects industry uptake will take time.
“The mining industry rushes to be second,” Sammut said, noting a preference for proven technologies. To address this, the company is working with miners to test their specific ores and demonstrate performance at increasing scales.
Early feedback has been positive, particularly once results are validated.
With multiple pilot programs being explored and commercial partners engaged, Loop Hydrometallurgy is positioning itself as a complementary solution rather than a direct replacement for existing smelter operations.
“Nobody’s asking anyone to switch horses midstream,” Sammut said. “We’re saying: look at the material you can’t process today and here’s a way to turn it into value.”
