MELBOURNE, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Scientists in Australia say a breakthrough understanding of chalcopyrite holds the key to making copper production cleaner, faster and more efficient as global demand surges for renewable energy.

In research published in Nature Geoscience, researchers highlight how trace amounts of silver can dramatically improve copper extraction by destabilizing the mineral's surface and triggering a cycle that releases copper more efficiently, a statement from Australia's Monash University said Wednesday.

The Monash team describes why chalcopyrite, the source of around 70 percent of the world's copper, has remained so difficult to process, and how its hidden chemistry could be harnessed to unlock more sustainable extraction.

Chalcopyrite has long resisted low-temperature processing, making extraction energy-intensive and wasteful -- a major bottleneck at a time when copper is critical for renewable energy systems, electric vehicles and modern infrastructure, the statement said.

"By understanding how trace elements like silver interact with chalcopyrite at the atomic level, we can begin to design smarter, more targeted extraction methods," said co-author Barbara Etschmann from Monash University.

"That means less energy, fewer chemicals, and better recovery from the same resource," Etschmann said.

The team said chalcopyrite's atomic structure underpins a family of semiconductors used in solar cells, photodetectors and energy conversion devices, linking geology directly to next-generation technologies. ■