Mining company promotes copper in public spaces to kill bacteria at PDAC

A Vancouver-based mining company wants to see copper in more public spaces due to its antimicrobial properties.

Teck Resources Limited will make that pitch to delegates at the on-line portion of the Prospectors and Developers Association Conference in Toronto, June 28th and 29tt.

The company has started to work with hospitals, daycares and public transit authorities to install copper on surfaces that are touched frequently.

Catherine Adair, the company's manager of community development, said many studies have found copper kills 99.9 per cent of harmful bacteria within two hours.

"So after someone touches a door handle, they may leave behind some germs," Adair said.

"If it's a copper door handle the copper immediately starts killing the germs that are sitting on that door handle."

Vasu Appanna, a biochemistry professor at Laurentian University, in Sudbury, Ont., said copper interferes with genetic material in bacteria that allow them to reproduce, and kills microbes over time.

"For many, many years, copper has been used to kill fungus, especially in agriculture, where people will spray copper sulfate as a way of eliminating fungal growth in plants," he said.

Teck Resources produces copper at its Highland Valley Copper Operations in south-central British Columbia.

The company has piloted a number of programs with public institutions, including schools, hospitals and transit providers, to add small amounts of copper to "high-touch" areas.

"It's a very minimal use of copper," said Adair.

"If you think of, you know, a door handle, the entire door handle doesn't need to be made of copper. It's really just the surface, which is what you touch."

Copper is used in a wide variety of applications, from wiring and plumbing, to electric motors and electronics.

"It's in the electrical grid, it's in our phones, it's in the cloud," Adair said. "The cloud is basically made of copper and that's where everything is stored right now."

Cheaper alternatives

Appanna, of Laurentian University, said using copper in public settings for its antimicrobial properties is not a bad idea, but added the metal is more expensive than other ways to kill harmful bacteria.

On Wednesday copper was trading at $3.94 US per pound.

Appanna said alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and bleach, for cleaning surfaces, have proven to be very effective at killing viruses and bacteria.

"Those organic sanitizers, I think they're doing a very, very good job," he said.

"Bleach is extremely powerful because organisms, such as microbes, die outside. And people sometimes even use ozone."