M3 Engineering has received a engineering procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract from Curis Resources for the first phase of a production test facility (PTF) at its Florence copper project in the US.

The contract will include a pilot-scale solvent extraction / electro-winning (SX/EW) facility, integrated with the well field technologies in order to simulate production-scale in-situ copper recovery and extraction plans.

The EPCM contract is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2012.

Curis Resources is planning to complete the feasibility study for Florence project and initiate operations utilising in-situ copper recovery technologies within the state land parcel in the next year.

The firm is expecting to start commercial production at Florence copper project by 2014.