Australian Mining sat down with Metso’s David Tulloch, Duncan Wyatt and Guillaume Lambert to discuss the company’s innovations and the buzz around critical minerals.
If there was ever a time for a major global resources deal to be announced, the first day of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) would be high on the list.
So when the US–Australia critical minerals deal first started making headlines on the morning of October 21, it was all but impossible to escape talk of the new agreement during the event.
While first reports focused on the initial tranche of projects earmarked for development funding, others across the industry could see the flow-on benefits, especially for companies with an established presence as key suppliers and partners in critical minerals processing and production.
And Metso certainly falls into that category.
From precious metals to industrial minerals, Metso offers advanced and comprehensive solutions tailored to efficiently processing a wide range of commodities, including copper, which was a very hot topic of conversation at IMARC.
Metso director of minerals Asia-Pacific David Tulloch was part of several panels at IMARC, as well as a session presenter of ‘The Copper (Concentrate) Conundrum’, making him well placed to provide insights not only on the much-vaunted deal but also on how companies like Metso are positioned to support critical minerals processing and production.
“Metso has a long history in developing technologies for copper production, both in mineral processing – taking it from ore through to concentrate – and, beyond that, upgrading the concentrate to refined metal,” Tulloch told Australian Mining.
“In Australia, for example, the fully integrated ore to metal facility at BHP’s Olympic Dam has a pretty extensive installed base of Metso equipment.”
One of the key challenges facing copper producers, Tulloch said, is finding new and better ways to unlock deposits that might not have previously been economically viable. As an innovation-focused company, Metso is relishing that challenge.
“As grades decline around the world, technology providers like Metso are challenged to find new ways of processing more complex ore,” Tulloch said.
“One such way might be through our recently updated copper pressure oxidation process, which uses an autoclave to leach more challenging ore types with high impurities, where site location and scale demand or where the POX [pressure oxidation] process provides advantages for oxide and transition ore types that are co-locational to a sulphide deposit.”
On a more conventional note, and complimentary to its flash smelting technology, Metso’s electrorefining solutions cover the entire process chain, from anode preparation to SME-grade copper cathode. This technology integrates the company’s process know-how and proven material-handling technologies with advanced process control, resulting in a holistic system where all interfaces are optimised for high performance and quality.
Designed to minimise operational challenges throughout a plant’s life, electrorefining technology is suitable for new and existing copper smelting operations. It represents another example of the kind of innovation for which Metso has become known.
Metso director of critical minerals and hydrometallurgical solutions Duncan Wyatt said the company’s focus on innovation always comes back to providing on-the-ground solutions that closely align with client feedback on factors such as capital and operational expenditure.
“We have a very strong R&D [research and development] presence in Finland and other countries, but as much as we draw on global resources, we do so with the support of local know-how and capabilities,” Wyatt, who also spoke on two critical minerals panels at IMARC, said.
Wyatt told Australian Mining it is important to have a global view of the business and how technology might be applied across different projects, “but there is a localisation of what we offer for most projects”.
“A recent example in copper is where we have been contracted to design and supply the largest above-ground modular [bolted] high-rate thickener for a new copper project in Australia,” he said. “That design was driven by local needs – a high-cost environment, a remote location, and a desire to have the lowest total installed cost – whilst leveraging nearby best-cost country supply.
“The other significant upside of the design was that not only will it bring a near-term benefit to the project in terms of total installed cost, but there are aspects of the design that make it both operationally optimal and maintenance friendly, as well as being inherently safer due to the deletion of a central access tunnel and central caisson particular to on-ground designs.
“It will work as an above-ground bolted arrangement for the life of mine. When that mine comes to its natural operational cessation, it will be able to be economically reutilised – essentially recycled – for another nearby mine or similar operation due to its modular design. It’s an example of the sustainable practices we’re putting in place to drive efficiency in the projects we help develop along with a long-term value-creation mindset.”
It’s also handy that Metso has built up an impressive stable of service global facilities, including its largest global service centre in Karratha, Western Australia, opened in 2024. The centre has quickly become a mainstay in the Pilbara, providing not only a full range of services to local miners but also a boost to regional employment, demonstrating the company’s commitment to local markets.
Visiting Australia for IMARC, Metso senior vice-president crushing Guillaume Lambert said it remains important to consider the flowsheet requirements of clients alongside technology. He told Australian Mining that Metso is seeing increased global demand for lower capital expenditure (capex) technologies in areas like iron ore, but copper operations, for example, often exhibit a different set of requirements.
“Perhaps where in the past we were selling very traditional technologies with high capex, we are now able to also offer lower-capex technologies that will match well with short-lifetime mining operations,” Lambert said. “At the other end, especially with copper, miners are more focused on the total cost of ownership. In this case, the dynamic is different. What we are developing are technologies that consume less power, use less water, and are more efficient overall than what was available previously.”
Lambert pointed to an example of a recent comminution project Metso delivered in South America, consisting of crushing, high-pressure grinding rolls, and a stirred mill in series.
“It was very new; new to this market and new to us. We were able to decrease power consumption by 40 per cent compared to the traditional SAG and ball mill,” he said. “That’s why we strive to be as agile as possible, depending on the customer’s focus.”
A critical move
Returning to talk of the critical minerals deal, Tulloch, Lambert and Wyatt all agreed that it could open a vista of exciting commercial, as well as technical and operational, opportunities. Many of the critical minerals and rare earths discussed under the deal will require new approaches to exploration and innovative processing technologies.
And, again, Metso is well positioned to support miners in these endeavours.
Wyatt said lithium is a good example of a commodity that is set to see a “big wave of development” over the next decade. “In mining and downstream refining capacity, we expect that in the next five to 10 years there will be an expansion of that capacity [for lithium],” he said.
“Metso is positioning itself to support downstream lithium refining with our new soda leach process, which is designed to add value to the spodumene concentrates processed through so much of the equipment we’ve supplied to mines in Western Australia and throughout Australia.”
The soda leach process, also known as the alkaline leach concept, is a novel processing route developed and patented by Metso for extracting refined lithium from raw concentrates.
Wyatt said clients he has spoken with are buoyed by the US–Australia deal. “It’s already created a market condition that sees investment as more favourable,” he said.
“It is going to provide some critical impetus for those projects we would call spade-ready; they have mining approvals in process, they have a defined resource, they have environmental approvals in process. They’re just missing that last critical piece of the puzzle, which is an improved equity position and associated financing approval.”
For Tulloch, the benefits of the US–Australia deal will hopefully flow through to developing stronger local critical minerals processing and refining capabilities.
“We very much welcome the prospect of more projects to support our customers in this part of the world,” he said. “There are a number of exciting projects in critical and strategic minerals that we’ve been working on recently with our customers, and we’re excited for what the future might hold.”
This feature appeared in the December issue of Australian Mining magazine.