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Freeport-McMoRanPatent grant

Freeport-McMoRan was granted a patent for optimizing leach stockpiles.

What happened

In September 2026 Freeport-McMoRan patented acid-monitoring and irrigation controls for improving metal recovery at mining leach operations.

Source

patents.google.comSep 8, 2026

US patent US12731087

Acid impacts on a leach stockpile

Abstract

The system may include a secondary irrigation feature that determines a percent of overlap of each of a plurality of submodules in a second lift over each of a plurality of submodules in a first lift and adjusts at least one of leaching operations or a leaching model based on the total tonnage weighted average of metal in the second lift. The method may further comprise determining an acid gap based on a difference between total acid given and total acid consumption; and further adjusting at least one of the leaching operations or the leaching model based on the acid gap. The method may further comprise determining a percentage of compacted material based on the material that is compacted and irrigated divided by the material that is irrigated; and further adjusting at least one of the leaching operations or the leaching model based on the percentage of compacted material.

patents.google.com/patent/US12731087Read the full source

Extracted by Autobound

From the Signal API record
Signal
Patent grant

What this signalsA new patent often shows where a company is putting its R&D budget.

Grant date
Sep 8, 2026
Inventors
4
Tech area
business methods / CRM / fintech
Patent number
US12731087

The full record

From the Signal API record

People

  • Dana GeislingerInventor
  • Travis GaddieInventor
  • Margaret Alden TinsleyInventor
  • Steven Chad RichardsonInventor
  • Raquel CrossmanInventor
  • Cristian CaroInventor

Details

Primary CPC class
G06Q 10/04 (Data processing systems for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes)
USPTO assignee
Freeport minerals corporation
What the invention does
A method that compares acid supplied with acid consumed and adjusts irrigation or the leaching model based on metal content across stockpile layers.

Topics and mentions

Tags

  • Intellectual Property
  • Research & Development
  • Industrial Engineering
  • Operations

Technologies named

  • heap leaching
  • irrigation control
  • process modeling
  • mining operations

Extraction

Detected
Sep 15, 2026
signal_type
patents-company
signal_subtype
patentGrant

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This page shows a preview. The full patents-company record in the Signal API and MCP can also have these 8 fields. Some fields are empty for some signals.

Company

  • linkedin_urlValue in the API
  • industriesValue in the API
  • employee_count_lowValue in the API
  • employee_count_highValue in the API
  • revenueValue in the API
  • descriptionValue in the API

Signal

  • signal_nameValue in the API
  • associationValue in the API
Show the full JSONThe record on this page and the API request

GET /v1/signals/671da34b-0a4e-51e9-a66a-b0797bf005f7 returns this record as JSON. POST /v1/companies/enrich returns every signal for fcx.com.

{
  "signal_id": "671da34b-0a4e-51e9-a66a-b0797bf005f7",
  "signal_type": "patents-company",
  "signal_subtype": "patentGrant",
  "detected_at": "2026-09-15T03:19:28+00:00",
  "company": {
    "name": "Freeport-McMoRan",
    "domain": "fcx.com"
  },
  "data": {
    "cpc": [
      {
        "code": "G06Q 10/04",
        "label": "Data processing systems for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes"
      },
      {
        "code": "C22B 3/06"
      },
      {
        "code": "C22B 15/0067"
      },
      {
        "code": "C22B 15/0095"
      },
      {
        "code": "G06Q 10/0631",
        "label": "Data processing systems for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes"
      }
    ],
    "tags": [
      "Intellectual Property",
      "Research & Development",
      "Industrial Engineering",
      "Operations"
    ],
    "detail": "In September 2026 Freeport-McMoRan patented acid-monitoring and irrigation controls for improving metal recovery at mining leach operations.",
    "summary": "Freeport-McMoRan was granted a patent for optimizing leach stockpiles.",
    "event_at": "2026-09-08",
    "inventors": [
      {
        "name": "Dana Geislinger",
        "status": "resolved",
        "is_primary": true,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-geislinger-8b2489162"
      },
      {
        "name": "Travis Gaddie",
        "status": "unresolved",
        "is_primary": false
      },
      {
        "name": "Margaret Alden Tinsley",
        "status": "resolved",
        "is_primary": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-tinsley-bb283179"
      },
      {
        "name": "Steven Chad Richardson",
        "status": "unresolved",
        "is_primary": false
      },
      {
        "name": "Raquel Crossman",
        "status": "resolved",
        "is_primary": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/raquel-crossman-82688a99"
      },
      {
        "name": "Cristian Caro",
        "status": "unresolved",
        "is_primary": false
      },
      {
        "name": "Kevin Cheng",
        "status": "unresolved",
        "is_primary": false
      },
      {
        "name": "Rosemary D. Blosser",
        "status": "resolved",
        "is_primary": false,
        "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemary-blosser-1b16b1227"
      }
    ],
    "tech_area": "business methods / CRM / fintech",
    "event_kind": "grant_date",
    "grant_date": "2026-09-08",
    "source_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US12731087",
    "cpc_primary": {
      "code": "G06Q 10/04",
      "label": "Data processing systems for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes"
    },
    "patent_title": "Acid impacts on a leach stockpile",
    "patent_number": "US12731087",
    "uspto_assignee": "FREEPORT MINERALS CORPORATION",
    "patent_abstract": "The system may include a secondary irrigation feature that determines a percent of overlap of each of a plurality of submodules in a second lift over each of a plurality of submodules in a first lift and adjusts at least one of leaching operations or a leaching model based on the total tonnage weighted average of metal in the second lift. The method may further comprise determining an acid gap based on a difference between total acid given and total acid consumption; and further adjusting at least one of the leaching operations or the leaching model based on the acid gap. The method may further comprise determining a percentage of compacted material based on the material that is compacted and irrigated divided by the material that is irrigated; and further adjusting at least one of the leaching operations or the leaching model based on the percentage of compacted material.",
    "precision_class": "structural",
    "invention_explanation": "A method that compares acid supplied with acid consumed and adjusts irrigation or the leaching model based on metal content across stockpile layers.",
    "technologies_mentioned": [
      "heap leaching",
      "irrigation control",
      "process modeling",
      "mining operations"
    ]
  }
}

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