en.Wedoany.com Reported - BHP is partnering with Microsoft to accelerate the screening of molecular compounds for copper leaching using high-performance computing and artificial intelligence, aiming to enhance copper extraction efficiency from existing ore bodies.
Global copper production demand continues to expand due to population growth, energy transition, digitalization, and the construction of artificial intelligence infrastructure. As developing new copper mines becomes increasingly difficult and costly, improving mineral recovery rates from existing low-grade ores has become a key operational lever. Traditionally, discovering effective copper leaching agents relies on sequential, manual trial-and-error laboratory processes, with physical testing of millions of potential molecular structures taking decades. To shorten the research and development cycle while maintaining scientific rigor, BHP, Microsoft, and Prescience Insilico have established a collaboration that combines BHP's large-scale mining operations and metallurgical data, Microsoft's high-performance cloud computing platform, and Prescience Insilico's specialized digital framework.
The technical solution is centered on the Microsoft Discovery platform, which accelerates scientific research and development through cloud-based high-performance computing (HPC) and dedicated AI agents. The computational work is divided among the three parties: Microsoft and Prescience Insilico provide the underlying advanced computing architecture, AI models, and quantum chemistry calculation engines; BHP uses physical data to configure and calibrate digital models, ensuring they accurately reflect the chemical and mineral conditions of ores across its global operations. The integrated system runs tens of thousands of automated quantum chemistry calculations and molecular simulations, screening over 500,000 target molecules to evaluate parameters such as extraction efficiency, operational constraints, toxicity levels, and environmental impact, ultimately filtering down to a small number of high-probability candidate molecules.
The project implementation strategy bridges digital simulation with physical laboratory validation. In the initial phase, the team has successfully screened over 500,000 molecules using the Microsoft Discovery platform. The project has now entered its next stage, where high-performance candidate molecules identified by the AI system will be extracted from the digital environment and handed over to scientists in Australian laboratories for physical testing. These on-site laboratory tests will validate simulated performance parameters against the actual constraints of BHP's ore bodies, laying the foundation for future large-scale deployment and industrial application across global copper operations.
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