In order to move from fossil resources to renewable sources by mid-century, around 60 million tonnes of copper will have to be drilled annually by then. This is twice as much as annual consumption today. This was estimated by Ivan Glasenberg, head of Glencore, a multinational mining company.
But if the world wants to reach the copper production target, it will have to increase the production of this metal by at least one million tons each year. “If you look at the developments over the last ten years, we have increased production by about 500,000 tons per year. Do we have new projects for this? I think doubling production will be extremely difficult,” Glasenberg said at the Qatar Economic Forum.
Wood Mackenzie’s analysis also coincides with Glasenberg. It draws attention to the fact that miners may not be sufficiently motivated to invest in expanding their mining capacity. Miners will invest if the price of the raw material guarantees them a return on such an investment.
But experience over the last decade shows that expanding mining was not very profitable, or the additional costs made it more profitable. These include, in particular, costs related to addressing the environmental impacts of mining or ensuring the social responsibility of such operations. And the current price does not yet motivate further investments.
