Across
- 3. A low-energy metallurgical process that uses microbes to dissolve metals instead of relying on high-temperature smelting.
- 5. A critical industrial metal whose global benchmark price touched $13,000 per tonne in 2026, driven by electrification and supply constraints.
- 6. A digital technology increasingly used to optimise copper recovery, predict microbial performance, and manage variability in waste-pile composition.
- 7. A technology unit focused on microbial metal recovery, whose leadership has highlighted advances in copper-eating bacteria.
- 8. Micro-organisms deployed to extract metals from low-grade ores and legacy mining waste that were earlier considered uneconomic.
Down
- 1. Tinto A major miner producing copper at scale using micro-organism-based recovery techniques.
- 2. A miner applying heap-leaching techniques on massive legacy waste dumps in the United States.
- 4. An executive who explained how bacteria adapt and evolve over decades to improve metal recovery.
- 8. The mining giant testing bacterial copper extraction at its Olympic Dam operations.
- 9. The world’s largest copper-producing nation, supplying nearly one-quarter of global output.