DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Priority Applicant’s claim of priority as a 35 U.S.C. §371 national stage entry of PCT/ ZA 2021 /0 50052 f iled Sept . 9 , 2021, is hereby acknowledged. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 10 3 The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action: A person shall be entitled to a patent unless – (a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action: A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made. Claim s 1 -10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as unpatentable over Walker (US PN 5,116,417 A to Walker , issu ed May . 2 6 , 1 992 ) and Bouffard ( "Review of agglomeration practice and fundamentals in heap leaching, "Minera l Processing and E xtractive Metallurgy Review, December1, 2004 .” Bouffard was cited by Applicant in its Information Disclosure Statement filed March 16, 2023. Walker discloses a binder composition used for recove ring of valu able metals from ores, particularly, a process and composition for agglomerating ore fines to enhance the economic recovery of metals in a heap leaching recovery process (abstract; col. 1, lines 13-17). The binder composition for agglomerating ore fines is a mixture of a reactive calcareous component, a reactive siliceous and aluminous component and (3) a sulfate compound , wherein the siliceous-aluminous component is a low carbon content fly ash having less than about 0.5% by weight carbon content and wherein t he preferred lime component of the binder composition is lime (col. 1, lines 10-35). Walker further teaches that the reactive siliceous-aluminous component can be pulverized fuel ash ( fly ash ), granulated slag , pumice dust, ground silica, clays such as bentonite or kaolinite, Portland cement kiln dust and other cement-type compounds , as well as mixtures thereof having a pozzolanic character ( col. 2, line 64 to col. 3, line 39). In example II, sodium hydroxide and sodium cyanide are used as the leaching agent (Example II and Table II). The binder composition can contain calcium silicate, and a calcium aluminate hydrate product of the invention ( col. 2, lines 64-66; claim 4 of Walker). Walker depicts examples of its binder composition having a fly-ash-calcium component of 22% (Example 1, Table 1). Walker does not disclose using its binder composition to leach copper ore from a copper ore mine. However, Bouffard teaches that copper ore mines are commonly use d in agglomeration process es, wherein the copper ore is subsequently leached to provide valuable metals ( Bouffard , particularly section 3, pages 2-5, Table 1). Therefore, it would have been within the purview of one skilled in the art at the time of the filing of the present application to apply Walker’s leaching/agglomeration process to copper ore materials obtained from a copper mine because agglomeration practice , and the leaching of copper ore materials , is commonly performed in the art as evidence by Baugh. Thus, the instant claims are unpatentable over Walker and Baugh . Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Enter examiner's name" \* MERGEFORMAT JOHN J FIGUEROA whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)272-8916 . The examiner can normally be reached on FILLIN "Work schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT 8:30 am -6:00 pm . If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JOSEPH DEL SOLE can be reached on 571-272-1 130 . The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571- 273-8300. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /JOHN J FIGUEROA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 176 3 December 1 3 , 2025