Jacobs Engineering Group has been selected by Canadian miner Teck Resources and German copper producer Aurubis to perform the pre-feasibility study for a proposed copper cathode production facility in Peru, the company said Tuesday.
Under the terms of the contract, Jacobs will provide capital expenditure and operational expenditure estimates to Teck and Aurubis for determining project pre-feasibility.
Teck and Aurubis' conceptual copper cathode production facility would incorporate their proprietary CESL copper-arsenic process technology, "providing high copper and precious metal recoveries, controlled arsenic deportment, and reduced environmental impact compared [with] traditional pyrometallurgical smelter processing facilities in respect to air, dust and water," Jacobs said in a statement.
Since 2010, Aurubis and Teck have jointly developed a technology to sustainably process copper concentrate with very high arsenic content, which could not be fed into smelters, according to a presentation given at Aurubis' Capital Market Day 2016.
In a hydrometallurgical process, the copper is leached, while the arsenic is precipitated simultaneously into a stable, non-hazardous mineral.
High-quality copper cathode is the main product, and gold and silver can be recovered with additional technology.
