copper

American Resource’s Copper Month may have ended, but copper demand continues to show strength, in spite of a global economy that is anemic at best.  Reuters reports a rapid depletion of current copper stocks, contrary to the macro-economic news of slowing global growth.  American Resources will leave month-to-month fluctuations in copper and other metals markets to the commodities traders; longer-term trends – including the migration of more than a billion people in China and India from subsistence to some semblance of middle class existence over the next decade – will drive global demand for copper and several dozen other metals and minerals.

The larger question is how the world will source these metals – and how the U.S. will continue to enjoy surety of supply.   Today, “Resource Wars” is a metaphor.  If we don’t press forward with domestic resource development, get ready for a world where Resource Wars are the real thing.

As Copper Month winds to a close, we’re thrilled to begin Antimony Month, the second part of our three-month informational campaign on copper, antimony, and lithium — American Resources’ way of highlighting how metals and minerals are critical to our economic advancement, quality of life and national security.  All this month we’ll be featuring stories on antimony and the role it plays in our daily lives.

Recently, online publication Resource Investor featured an interview with Global Securities’ Metals and Mining Analyst, Jeff Hunter, on antimony – a metal with “an interesting past and a bright future. “

The use of antimony dates back to ancient times, when it was primarily used for medicinal purposes.  Since then, it has been used in television cathode ray tubes, lead acid batteries, and most recently, in fire retardants. According to Wright, this is where its future lies, particularly in automobile manufacturing. As demand has increased for lighter, faster, more fuel-efficient cars, so too has the need for fire-retardant plastic – and by extension – antimony.  The technical process may be complex, but the concept is straightforward: one route to fuel efficiency is making cars lighter, lighter cars means less metal and more plastic, but plastic is more flammable.  Enter antimony:  An element that, mixed with plastic, makes it more flame resistant.

The U.S. holds significant deposits of minable antimony; however, our import dependency rate for this metal is 93 percent, with China reportedly accounting for around 90 percent of global output. This situation should sound familiar to those aware of China’s near-identical monopoly on rare earth elements, another mineral resource with broad technology applications.

While this fact has caught the British Geological Survey’s attention and earned antimony the title of top critical mineral on the Survey’s new Risk List 2011, many American policy makers have yet to realize that our dependance on foreign minerals stretches well beyond rare earths. It’s time they do, because as the global race for resources heats up, the rest of the world won’t wait for the U.S.

As we close off Copper Month, if you needed proof that copper is more than a metal limited to industrial-era uses, here it is: The Copper Development Association (CDA) is working with several international companies to develop new AC induction motors with copper rotors that would enable manufacturers to build electric vehicles (EVs) without permanent magnets [...]

When American Resources declared October “Copper Month,” this is not at all what we had in mind.  A story out of San Francisco, headline above, reports that thieves have made off with a 122-year-old copper church bell, weighing in at 5,300 pounds.  Given that copper is currently valued at about $3.34/lb, it wouldn’t come as [...]

As we’re kicking off week two of “Copper Month” at American Resources, here’s a look at the geography at global copper mining, and the geopolitical challenges that arise from it.  According to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, most of the world’s copper is mined in Chile, Peru, and China. The U.S. ranks fourth, but domestic [...]

As if they had known that October is Copper Month here on AmericanResources.org, the current issue of the Economist features a story on what the publication calls “Red Bull – the world’s most informative metal.” Leading off with an anecdote on the increase in copper theft (an issue we have previously discussed) serving as an [...]

October is here – and so is Copper Month. We’re kicking off our informational campaign to highlight the breadth of our nation’s metals and minerals needs by drilling down into the many utilities of and challenges associated with copper – a mainstay industrial metal that has more in common with the often-discussed rare earth elements  [...]

As American Resources launches “Copper Month,” Instapundit blog provides a link to a story that kicks us off with a bang, though thankfully not the thermo-nuclear kind. U.S. Oak Ridge Laboratory, home of super-secret nuclear weapons work during World War II, is auctioning off artifacts from the Manhattan Project.  Among them, massive magnets called “D-Rings,” [...]

CopperMatters.org Shows that Resource Dependency goes beyond Rare Earth Elements Washington, D.C. – The American Resources Policy Network announced today that it would expand on its messaging in favor of exploring the available non-fuel resources in America by launching a campaign for copper, antimony, and lithium – elements readily available in the country, yet not [...]

Well, you won’t see that headline atop of pieces like this one in the Alaskan press, but it’s a logical extension of policy actions like the one proposed to stop a copper/gold/molybdenum mine in Alaska.  In this case, we’re told that we can either allow the mine to proceed – or we can save the [...]