I was just reading an article on Copper Investing News titled:

What are In-situ Recovery Copper Projects? Feb 15, 2015

http://copperinvestingnews.com/23154-isr-copper-projects-excelsior-mining-copper-fox-metals-taseko-curis-arizona.html

It is a fairly detailed article and a good read about the good and bad regarding ISR.

Underneath the Environmentally Safe? heading, a few things stood out to me:

"...many guidelines require that following the end of a project’s life, the water in the area must be usable for the same purposes it was used for before the project’s construction. For that reason, local water will often undergo purification, commonly by reverse osmosis, following the closure of projects.

However, it is impossible to entirely remove all contaminants from water, which has caused concern over the ISR process and has led some to question whether the process is as safe as it is claimed to be.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, it is possible for the leaching solution to seep into groundwater. This has led to regulations and legislation requiring water treatment and testing."

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"...proponents of the process argue that while risks exist, they still pose significantly less harm to the environment and human health than traditional methods of mining. This is especially true if the in-situ mine is not located near a residential area or where water is used for drinking."

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"Copper companies using ISR

Here is a brief look at some current copper projects that are using ISR:

• Excelsior Mining, Gunnison project
• Copper Fox Metals, Van Dyke project
• Taseko Mines (TSX:TKO), Florence project"

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I was under the impression that there were companies currently mining copper in Arizona using the ISR method, but the article only mentions projects in exploration or development stages.

Does anyone know if there are any currently operating ISR projects? I think it has been mentioned before that there are?

I have come up dry on google. I'm trying to see what water consumption is like and if there are any groundwater contamination issues (or permitting difficulties).

I did find this on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_situ_leach and it implies that only a pilot scale facility has been tested and much more water was needed than expected to restore (unsuccessfully?) after leaching. I realize I am only seeing part of this though my research - if anyone has other sources please let me know.

"The only Western in-situ leaching site restored after sulfuric acid leaching so far, is the small pilot scale facility Nine Mile Lake near Casper, Wyoming (USA). The results can therefore not simply be transferred to production scale facilities. The restoration scheme applied included the first two steps mentioned above. It turned out that a water volume of more than 20 times the pore volume of the leaching zone had to be pumped, and still several parameters did not reach background levels."