CopperCorp CEO Steve Swatton explains how the company is focused on the long-term demand for copper.
“We believe copper is the way forward–for climate change, for renewable energy, for the health of the planet, for connecting people and societies. For a developing world.”
That’s what we say on CopperCorp’s “About” web page. And we mean it.
This is a long-term, positive view based on fundamentals that support sustained copper demand for many years to come.
Have a look at this five-year chart for copper:
In less than two years, the spot price has doubled with sustained high prices for the past year. What’s going on?
There are short-term factors, such as resurging economies following Covid, inflation concerns and unrest in Chile. But there’s a bigger picture here, how copper is essential for just about everything related to construction, industry, energy and technology. That’s not going to change.
The world continues to build and repair infrastructure. Production of electric vehicles (EV’s), which require far more copper than traditional vehicles, continues to surge. Renewable energy, and especially solar power, will continue to consume enormous and growing amounts of copper.
According to the Energy Information Association, solar power will account for nearly half of new U.S. electric generating capacity in 2022. Each new megawatt of solar power requires 5.5 tons of copper.
This infographic from the CDA shows how all renewables will consume vast amounts of copper in the future, requiring 4-6 times more copper than electricity generated by fossil fuels.
We formed CopperCorp with this long-haul copper view in mind. We’re looking two, three and even five years down the road. In that time, the world will need way more copper than it uses now, and somebody needs to find it.
We’re certainly not alone in this view. In May of 2021, the Globe and Mail noted that one of the industry’s primary challenges was a steep decline in new discoveries, particularly in safe jurisdictions.
At a recent mining conference in Saudi Arabia, Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow stated that “Copper is such a strategic metal,” and “without a doubt,” it faces supply challenges in the coming years.
Over the past decade, the mining industry has suffered a critical lack of investment in copper exploration. Big miners need new, viable deposits, and they’re not easy to find. That’s why we went to Tasmania and acquired prime copper projects with district-scale potential. That’s why we’ll be exploring our Alpine Project there throughout 2022.
This is the long-haul view, and it’s a key reason why we formed CopperCorp.
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Steve Swatton