A mining company is pioneering a new method to mine copper from low-grade ores in Cochise County.
Nuton, a subsidiary of multinational mining corporation Rio Tinto, produced its first copper under the new method late last year at the Johnson Camp Mine, according to a Dec. 4, 2025, press release. The technology uses naturally occurring microbes to extract copper from minerals that are difficult to process, such as chalcopyrite.
Muller said that chalcopyrite contains about 70% of the world’s copper, but that traditional techniques to mine the mineral are very energy-intensive. Nuton’s method, he said, involves adding specialized microbes and an acidic liquid to heaps of crushed chalcopyrite before extracting the pure copper from the resulting runoff.
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