Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development

The goal of the Center was to test the feasibility of a clean, pollution-free and energy efficient new technology for producing copper from the sulfide minerals.

The technology investigated at this Center was aimed at copper smelters which were using technologies that generated large amounts of sulfur dioxide emissions and were not efficient in terms of energy consumption. The industrial feasibility of a closed and continuous copper smelting technology based on bottom gas injection was evaluated and confirmed. The technology was proven to be technically sound and environmentally superb. During the Center project a patent on a entirely new and different technology on solvent extraction processes was developed: H. Y. Sohn, “Continuous Solvent Extraction with Bottom Gas Injection,” U.S. Patent No. 5,641, 462, June 24, 1997.

•  Patent issued on new low polution, energy efficient copper smelter technology.

• Kennecott