Amazon Web Services inks landmark metal deal with mining giant Rio Tinto

Key Takeaways

• Rio Tinto and AWS have announced a strategic copper partnership using breakthrough bioleaching technology.
• Bioleaching technology will extract copper with reduced carbon emissions and water usage compared to traditional methods.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), a large-scale cloud hosting and online services provider, has entered into a two-year agreement with Nuton, the proprietary bioleaching venture of the mining giant Rio Tinto.

AWS will become the first customer of copper produced using Nuton’s innovative bioleaching technology at the Johnson Camp mine. The copper will be used in AWS’s US data centers, benefiting from Nuton’s environmentally friendly method of copper extraction.

The partnership also includes cloud-based data support from AWS to optimize Nuton’s bioleaching operations at the mine, aiming to reduce water and carbon emissions compared to traditional copper processing methods.

Rio Tinto’s copper head Katie Jackson said the collaboration demonstrates how industrial innovation combined with cloud technology can support the production of cleaner, lower-carbon materials at scale.

“Nuton has already proven its ability to rapidly move from idea to industrial production, and AWS’s data and analytics expertise will help us accelerate optimization and verification across operations,” she added.

According to Amazon’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst, working with Nuton Technology allows for a fundamentally different method of producing copper that lowers both carbon emissions and water consumption, which contributes to AWS’s sustainability strategy.

“Amazon’s Climate Pledge goal to reach net zero carbon by 2040 requires us to innovate across every part of our operations, including how we source the materials that power our infrastructure,” Hurst stated.

“As we continue to invest in next-generation carbon-free energy technology and expand our data centre operations, securing access to lower-carbon materials produced close to home strengthens both our supply chain resilience and our ability to decarbonize at scale,” she added.

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