According to a senior BHP executive, meeting the projected surge in global copper demand would require an investment of $250 billion over the next decade.
The green energy transition would require an unprecedented amount of new copper mining projects to be added to the world’s supply, with demand growing 70% by 2050, as projected by BHP.
“To bridge this gap, we estimate the cumulative cost to be a quarter of a trillion dollars. This is a formidable challenge that will require significantly more investment globally than what we have seen over the previous decade,” Mining Weekly quotes BHP chief commercial officer Rag Udd as saying.
According to him, copper supply will need to expand by an additional 10 million tons a year over the next decade to meet rising consumption. The company forecasts that copper demand will reach more than 50 million tons a year by 2050, with an average growth rate of 2% a year. The growth will not only come from advanced economies, but also from emerging markets.
Despite the fact that global copper production has doubled over the past 30 years to 22 million tons a year mainly due to new mines being commissioned in Latin America, the Asia-Pacific and Africa, many existing copper mines are ageing and their output is expected to decline by around 15% by 2035. The industry would have to double the production in less than half the time than previously while also replacing the depleting deposits - a much harder task.
The ongoing decline of ore grades by about 40% since 1991 adds to the challenge, and, although advances in processing technologies have helped offset some of the impact, the trend highlights the need for reinvestment across the sector to sustain supply.
Theodor Lisovoy, Managing Editor, Rough&Polished
