Copper's 'gatekeeper' could unlock cleaner energy future

A common mineral hiding in plain sight could be the key to making copper production cleaner, faster and more efficient, just as global demand for the metal increases to fuel the energy transition. In a paper published in Nature Geoscience, researchers from Monash University’s School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment describe why chalcopyrite, the source of around 70% of the world’s copper, has remained so difficult to process, and how its hidden chemistry could be harnessed to unlock more sustainable extraction.