Rio Tinto and AWS: Redesigning Mine-to-Market Value Chains

Rio Tinto's strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) highlights sustainable sourcing of critical materials, supply chain resilience for data centres and the use of advanced analytics to redesign mine-to-market value chains.

It also exemplifies how large buyers like AWS are using demand signals and long-term offtake to shape lower-carbon upstream supply options.

Bioleaching breakthrough secures first customer

The partnership will see AWS become Nuton Technology's first customer following the breakthrough industrial-scale deployment of the innovative bioleaching technology at the Johnson Camp copper mine in the US last month.

This two-year agreement means AWS will become the first to use the Nuton copper produced in components of its US data centres, while also providing cloud-based data and analytics support to accelerate the optimisation of Nuton's proprietary bioleaching technology at Gunnison Copper's Johnson Camp mine.

Rio Tinto's Chief Executive for Copper, Katie Jackson, says: "This collaboration is a powerful example of how industrial innovation and cloud technology can combine to deliver 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 to accelerate optimisation and verification across operations.

"Importantly, by bringing Nuton copper into AWS's US data-centre supply chain, we're helping to strengthen domestic resilience and secure the critical materials those facilities need, closer to where they're used. Together we can supply the copper critical to modern data infrastructure while demonstrating how mining can contribute to more sustainable supply chains."

Digital tools drive copper recovery optimisation

Copper is used for a range of applications in a data centre, such as electrical cables and busbars, windings in transformers and motors, printed circuit boards and heat sinks on processors.

Nuton will also benefit from AWS tools, such as the ability to simulate heap-leach performance and feed advanced analytics into Nuton's decision systems – which will allow it to optimise the use of acid and water, while also improving its predictions for copper recovery.

With a modular bioleaching system working to extract copper from primary sulphide ores through the use of naturally occurring microorganisms, this approach, combined with digital tools, enables rapid scaling and tailoring of the technology to different ore bodies, reducing the pathway from concept to production.

The process produces 99.99% pure copper cathode at the mine gate and removes the need for traditional concentrators, smelters and refineries, significantly shortening the mine-to-market supply chain. Nuton is projected to use substantially less water and have lower carbon emissions compared with conventional concentrator processing routes, while also recovering value from ore previously classified as waste.

Climate pledge drives material sourcing innovation

Amazon's Chief Sustainability Officer, Kara Hurst, adds: "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.

"This collaboration with Nuton Technology represents exactly the kind of breakthrough we need – a fundamentally different approach to copper production that helps reduce carbon emissions and water use.

"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 decarbonise at scale."