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<\/a>Fast forward a few decades, where Brindle points to a vat containing a copper-covered iron bar immersed in a leached copper solution. He\u00a0picks up the bar, but instead of scraping the copper from the iron, Brindle merely wipes it off. The shiny, high-purity copper crystals fall from the iron effortlessly, like tender meat off a bone.<\/p>\nThe copper in the solution came from an abandoned Ontario mine that has only tiny deposits of the element tucked away in many layers of rock.<\/p>\n
Brindle has partnered with\u00a0Destiny Copper Inc., a resident company in the Goodman School of Business\u2019 Goodman Group-Venture Development\u00a0<\/a>in the\u00a0Brock LINC<\/a>, to develop new methods of producing copper. These methods have the potential to revolutionize the copper mining industry in Canada and beyond because they are simple and mobile.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had interest from South America, Mexico and the U.S.,\u201d says Dave Cousins, co-founder of Destiny Copper.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve already got Swiss copper traders that are willing to buy as much as we can produce, so the demand is there,\u201d adds co-owner Greg Hanna.<\/p>\n The aim of Destiny Copper\u2019s work is to offer a new way of extracting copper from small deposits of copper ore (crushed rock and other deposits)\u00a0that most large-scale mining companies would consider to be too small to process using conventional methods.<\/p>\n The first step involves extracting and dissolving copper from rocks in which the mineral is contained.\u00a0The company collects ore from the surface layer of test sites in several Ontario mines that are old or abandoned, which is then brought to the lab, where water and chemicals are filtered through the material to leach the copper out.<\/p>\n The leached liquid is a copper sulphate solution that Hanna affectionately calls \u201cblue juice.\u201d Once an additive is added and comes into contact with iron, it produces the granular copper.<\/p>\n The provisionally patented \u2018granular copper process\u2019 is what differentiates Destiny Copper from other copper processes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe discrete crystals don\u2019t stick to the iron, so you can easily separate the copper once it\u2019s produced from the iron,\u201d says Brindle. \u201cThat gives you the opportunity of purifying the copper further into big sheets that weigh 125 kilograms, which can be sold on the international market.\u201d<\/p>\n The game changer, says Hanna, is that this method uses virtually no electricity and requires far less equipment than conventional methods. Normally, sophisticated extraction equipment would be needed to remove the copper from the iron.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a far greener process than the current copper extraction technologies, which require huge amounts of electricity,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the cleanest form of mining there could be.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanna notes that as green technologies such as electric vehicles, solar and wind power generation gain traction, copper will be in even greater demand.<\/p>\n \u201cThese technologies take up to 12 times the amount of copper when compared to fossil fuel electricity generation,” he says.<\/p>\n Destiny Copper\u2019s modular process makes it ideal to set up operations directly on site, a huge advantage for mines that contain small copper deposits not worthwhile for large mining companies, says Brindle.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got high-value copper essentially marooned in the environment and nobody is going to spend the money to extract that copper using conventional techniques, so you\u2019ve got to come up with something novel,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause of the simplicity of the technology, you can load all of the equipment you need on the back of a flatbed truck; when the copper is mined out, you put everything back on the truck and go to the next place.\u201d<\/p>\n The company is now working on additional funding to further refine the equipment needed for mobile operations.<\/p>\n