Tag Archives: Excelsior Mining

Excelsior Mining to explore Nuton leaching options at Johnson Camp mine

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Excelsior Mining says it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Nuton LLC, a Rio Tinto venture, to evaluate the use of its Nuton copper heap leaching technologies at Excelsior’s Johnson Camp mine in Cochise County, Arizona, USA.

Rio Tinto has developed the Nuton technologies, an extensive portfolio of advanced copper heap leaching technologies targeted at primary sulphde minerals (including lower-grade minerals), which could not otherwise be processed using traditional leaching or sulphide processing technologies. These technologies offer the potential to produce additional copper in a cost-effective manner that has significant environmental benefits and reduces waste from new and ongoing operations.

The agreement with Excelsior adds to similar pacts Nuton has signed with Regulus Resources, McEwen Copper, Lion Copper and Gold Corp and Arizona Sonoran Copper Company.

The first stage of the collaboration involves Nuton completing certain test work on materials collected from the company’s Johnson Camp mine project to confirm that suitable conditions exist to deploy the Nuton technologies. Assuming this test work is successful, the parties would then work toward negotiating commercial terms for a full-scale deployment of the Nuton technologies at the Johnson Camp mine.

Test work is expected to commence during the March quarter of 2023 with a view toward potentially negotiating commercial terms dependent on the test results and other factors during the September quarter of 2023.

Excelsior is a mineral exploration and production company that owns and operates the Gunnison copper project in Cochise County, Arizona. The project is an in-situ recovery copper extraction project permitted to 125 million pounds (56,699 t) per year of copper cathode production. Excelsior also owns the past producing Johnson Camp Mine and a portfolio of exploration projects, including the Peabody Sill and the Strong and Harris deposits.

Excelsior’s Gunnison ISR copper mine coming to life

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Excelsior Mining says it has successfully commenced mining operations at its Gunnison in-situ recovery copper project in southern Arizona, USA.

Following a commissioning program that had been ongoing for several weeks, regulatory approval to commence mining operations through the injection of acid was recently received from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Delivery of mining fluids to the copper orebody has since commenced with fluids now circulating through a closed-loop system until the concentration of copper held in solution meets sufficient grade to be treated through the Johnson Camp processing facilities. This will lead to extraction of copper and the production of cathode sheets.

Excelsior said first copper cathode sales were expected in the March quarter.

Stephen Twyerould, President & CEO, said: “Following on the heels of the successful completion of the construction phase, mining operations at the Gunnison copper project are now underway. We remain absolutely confident in our capacity to deliver low-cost copper production while maintaining our commitment to safety and the environment.”

Mark J Morabito, Excelsior’s Chairman, said he and the board looked forward to continuing the ramp up of existing operations in 2020 and laying the groundwork for future expansion to Gunnison’s full production capacity of 125 million pounds (56,999 t) of production per year.

Gunnison’s initial capital cost was estimated at $49 million, with the mine expected to produce 2,200 MIb of copper cathode over a 24-year life.