An amorphous copper oxide material with a large BET surface area (191.9m2 g−1) was prepared via the room temperature conversion of a Cu(OH)2 intermediate, itself formed via a novel base precipitation technique from an ethylene glycol solvent. The electrochemical discharge rate performance as a primary alkaline cathode material was examined galvanostatically (50−2000mAg−1) in 9.0moldm−3 KOH electrolyte, and compared to the incumbent primary alkaline cathode material, electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD). The prepared CuO material performs favourably compared to EMD under high rate discharge conditions (>600mAg−1), where the material discharges 154 and 135mAhg−1 capacity at a discharge rate of 1000 and 2000mAg−1, respectively, compared to 132 and 83mAhg−1 for EMD under the same conditions.