My Vision
The mining industry is under a lot of pressure from environmental concerns to escalating capital costs to resource depletion and many other things. Over the last 200 years there has been tremendous innovation in discovery and extraction techniques and efficiency.
One of the major innovations was copper heap leaching techniques with SXEW plants to produce low cost copper both operating and capital. But even this technique requires the movement of a lot of materials.
The next major innovation will be in situ copper leaching. In fact it has already been done successfully and it is on the verge of a breakthough with a number of projects planning on utilizing it. It has the benefit of low capital cost, low operating cost, and a miniscule environmental footprint.
Our vision then is to help promote and educate the copper mining industry about this revolutionary extractive technique to provide a “solution” to its ever increasing costs. Join me on this journey by looking at some of the other pages here.
Meet the Owner
Gary first graduated from UBC majoring in geology to pursue his passion about learning how everything worked under the earths surface. This led him to several years of mineral exploration work which led to a lot of travelling and exploring new areas. However, when he had the opportunity to combine two of his passions (Geology and Computer Science) he took up a position as the computer geologist at Ruttan Mine, an underground operation on a Cu-Zn VMS deposit.
The big moment though came with the opportunity to be the key geologist at the San Manuel Oxide operation which was about to rapidly expand its in situ leaching operation when the open pit heap leach operation was coming to a close. He then spent five years being responsible for the ore reserves and managing the well drilling program at San Manuel. Unfortunately the entire San Manuel minesite was closed due to low copper prices even though the in situ operation was at 40 cents per pound.
Gary's next career was to work with one of the prominent conveyor pulley manufacturers for the mining industry. With products in operation in places like Suncor, Oyu Tolgoi, Escondida, and Cerro Verde he was not far removed from the mining industry. After positions as CFO and CEO he helped ownership successfully sell the company.
Today Gary is focused on bringing in situ copper leaching to the forefront of discussions of the future of the copper mining industry.
Gary Sutton
Owner and In Situ Leaching Geologist exploring Machu Picchu