Mining corporation Rio Tinto has announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to provide copper with reduced carbon footprint for American data centers. The agreement is valid for two years and was the first commercial contract after the industrial implementation of Nuton technology.
The resulting copper will be used to build new and upgrade existing AWS data centers. In response, Amazon will provide the project with digital support: the Nuton division will have access to cloud services for working with production data and analytical systems.
The metal will be produced at the Johnson Camp site, which uses bioleaching technology. This method extracts copper from ore with less environmental impact and reduces the burden on water and energy resources compared to traditional processing schemes.
The company notes that copper production is carried out using renewable energy sources confirmed by the international Green-e Energy certification system. Additionally, water consumption has been optimized, resulting in a reduction in the carbon footprint to approximately 2.82 kilograms of CO₂ equivalent per kilogram of product.
The project involves the production of approximately 30 thousand tons of refined copper over four years. These volumes are aimed at meeting growing needs digital infrastructure, where reliable power supply and high conductivity of materials are key.
Rio Tinto emphasizes that cooperation with AWS reflects changing demands from technology companies, which are increasingly paying attention not only to supply volumes, but also to the environmental parameters of raw materials. This provides an incentive for the mining sector to accelerate the adoption of cleaner technologies.
Amazon continues to actively expand its network of data centers and is looking for ways to reduce the environmental impact of its infrastructure. The use of copper with a reduced carbon footprint is seen as a practical step towards achieving these goals.
Joint project between Rio Tinto and AWS demonstrates how green metals are gradually becoming part of the value chain digital services and link the extractive industries to the sustainable development agenda.
Source: @dprom
