Its conductivity makes it a key component of decarbonization and electrification technology ranging from solar power to hydro, thermal and wind energy, as well as energy storage and transportation.

The looming copper gap, to which ARPN called attention years ago, has prompted industry and academia to once more harness the materials science revolution providing advances in materials exploration and development, to join forces to identify sedimentary hosted copper deposits.  According to a newly-founded consortium of stakeholders led by the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET), these deposits offer a “promising and more sustainable alternative for meeting the increasing global demand for this energy transition critical mineral.”

According to mining.com, the deposits “account only for 20-25% of the world’s total copper production today and offer several advantages compared to non-sedimentary alternatives (…) being globally more widely distributed [and] present ESG opportunities by promoting economic distribution and reducing transport emissions.”

The sedimentary deposits are said to require less energy-intensive processing methods, and, as an added benefit in light of surging demand of battery critical materials against the backdrop of the green energy transition, sedimentary hosted copper deposits also contain significant amounts of cobalt.

The consortium, which also comprises the University of Warsaw, First Quantum Minerals, Teck Resources, BHP and Getech, a locator of subsurface resources, has launched a three-year Kupferschiefer project to create maps of promising areas within the Central European Basin using “proprietary gravity and magnetics data, as well as Globe earth model and spatial analytical expertise.” 

The materials science revolution appears to once more deliver, and the project is a promising endeavor with long-term prospects.  However, as followers of ARPN well know, the looming copper gap warrants immediate action.

The Financial Times predicted that copper’s growing application in this field will result “in it being dubbed the ‘metal of electrification’, with forecasts that it will double to a 50mn tonne market by 2035 compared with 2021 levels, according to S&P Global, which predicts a ‘chronic gap’ between supply and demand.”

U.S. import reliance for copper hovered around 30 to 35 percent in the 2010s, but in the 2020s, that number has gone up to more than 40 percent in the 2020s, according to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries. 

In addition to looking to turning to newly unlocked (courtesy of the materials science revolution) deposits the Wall Street Journal outlined earlier this fall that mining companies are also targeting “a new but also old source – closed mines, also known as brownfield sites.”  The Journal points to Sweden-based miner Bluelake Mineral, seeking to reopen a mine site in northern Norway that closed 25 years ago, as well as to Rio Tinto’s Resolution Copper project near Superior, Arizona.

As ARPN outlined earlier, the project is considered one of the most significant undeveloped copper deposits in the world and would reuse the historic Magma Mine which started production in 1910 and operated until 1996. While the project has strong support from the surrounding community, and began the permitting process in 1997, it is still awaiting permits to begin operation.

For all its uses and growing demand profile, copper incredulously has not (yet) been added to the overall U.S. government’s critical minerals list (though the Department of Energy recently designated the material a critical material as part of its 2023 Critical Materials Assessment).

However, with demand and geopolitical volatility surging, securing key mineral supply chains becomes more pertinent than ever, and stakeholders should look to embrace a multitude of opportunities – both traditional and new – to diversify away from our adversaries and unleash our domestic mineral potential where possible.

The post Old Metal, New Uses, New Demand Profile, New Technologies – A Look at Copper appeared first on American Resources Policy Network.

Testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources chaired by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) this fall, Dr. Morgan Bazilian, Director of the Payne Institute and Professor of Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines told committee members:

“The future energy system will be far more mineral and metal-intensive than it is today. Many of these advanced technologies require minerals and metals with particular properties that have few to no current substitutes.

The opportunity for the mining industry is tremendous. An industry that has experienced enormous public pressure and critique, accompanied by offshoring production overseas, can now evolve into one fundamental to supporting a shift to a low-carbon and sustainable energy system based on domestic natural resources.”

Representing one of the most “energy-intensive industry” on the planet, mining companies are increasingly “recognizing their responsibility and trying to meet the increased expectations of consumers, society and governments,” as Fleming Voetman, VP for Public Affairs at the International Copper Association outlined earlier this year. Advances in technology, make it possible increasingly to restore a balance between mining and environmental protection, and the industry is working to meet the challenge.

Sustainably greening the future begins with responsible sourcing, an area where consumer electronics companies like Ericsson and mining companies like Rio Tinto have been overhauling their supply chain policies to ensure suppliers conform to certain environmental and social standards, and companies like consumer electronics maker Phillips and mining company Teck are supporting local communities.

The World Bank’s Climate-Smart Mining Initiative, a new program designed to help “resource-rich developing countries benefit from the increasing demand for minerals and metals, while ensuring the mining sector is managed in a way that minimizes the social, environmental and climate footprint” also ties into this context. As part of the initiative, earlier this year, the World Bank’s “Climate-Smart Mining Facility” – a multi-donor trust fund with the initial backing of the German government, as well as private sector companies Rio Tinto and Anglo American – was launched. The trust fund has the stated goal of “help[ing] resource-rich developing countries benefit from the increasing demand for minerals and metals, while ensuring the mining sector is managed in a way that minimizes the environmental and climate footprint,” and will support specific projects aimed at helping developing countries and emerging economies devise and implement “sustainable and responsible strategies and practices across the mineral value chain.”

But it does not end here. In an effort to offset some of the carbon costs of resource development, mining companies have started to incorporate renewable power sources into their operations. These include, for example:

• Rio Tinto looking at incorporating renewables and battery storage into its main mining sites in Australia, for example as part of its $1 billion upgrade for its Pilbara ore project

• Fortescue Metals having partnered with a power utility to – with the backing of the Australian federal government – help power its Pilbara operations with solar energy and battery storage

• Gold Fields planning to predominantly operate its Agnew gold mine in Western Australia (WA) using renewable energy by partnering with a global energy group and investing in an energy micro grid combining wind, solar, gas and battery storage

• Antofagasta partnering with a utility company to turn its Zaldívar mine into the first 100% renewable energy-powered Chilean mine with a mix of hydro, solar and wind power

• Rio Tinto looking to reduce its carbon footprint at its Kennecott Utah copper mine by as much as 65% through the purchase of renewable energy certificates

These are just a few examples, and we can expect more companies to follow suit in the coming decade.

The post Sustainably Greening the Future – Changes in Mining Technology for the New Decade appeared first on American Resources Policy Network.

In an Industry Week piece from earlier this month, Paul Martyn, vice president of supply at BravoSolution, shares his thoughts on the dangers of China’s Rare Earths supply stranglehold from a U.S. manufacturing perspective, and ways to address this challenge.

Here are the key points from the piece:

• China’s near-total Rare Earths monopoly has given it the power to manipulate the REE market through production caps and export controls.

• According to Martyn, the “situation marks a time for manufacturers to break free from China and do what they do best: innovate,” – to “minimize China’s role by leveraging our primary assets and investing in local sourcing.”

• Successfully doubling down on exploring and developing non-Chinese sources of Rare Earths, at least a dozen of which are in the U.S. result in a “resurgence in the industrial backbone of the U.S.

• REE mining in the U.S. would connect three critical assets Martyn says we uniquely possess:

1. An innovative manufacturing industry with modern capabilities and technologies.
2. A supply of rare earth metals to exploit.
3. A large of the supply of natural gas, which could potentially make the fueling of both of these operations more cost effective.

• China’s price manipulations have led tech companies like Apple to move deeper into the supply chain, venturing into the local vertical markets. In doing so, U.S. electronics manufacturers are positioning themselves well against old “industry giants.” According to Martyn, this development points to definitive potential of a domestic manufacturing resurgence.

Martyn’s bottom line:

“In the next five to 10 years, manufacturers should be venturing out and looking for additional sources of supply. By looking at additional sources through folks in the equity world and mining industry, you can begin to get a sense of when additional supply may come out.”

The post Shaking off China’s REE stranglehold holds potential for U.S. manufacturing resurgence appeared first on American Resources Policy Network.

With these batteries having become indispensable components of portable electronics and electric vehicles, both of which represent growth markets, demand for lithium will likely continue to soar, making current efforts to boost domestic production through new technologies all the more timely.

Successes in research like this one underscore that technological progress and resource development go hand in hand. As applications for many high-tech, as well as mainstay metals continue to grow, so does dependency on these elements.  A nation that fails to overhaul its critical mineral strategy accordingly, and fails to explore and develop the resources it has, runs the risk of being marginalized in the global race for resources.

The post Demand for critical mineral lithium likely to increase thanks to new technology appeared first on American Resources Policy Network.

The U.S. Administration has been advocating for greener technologies in the automotive industry over the past few years, encouraging American consumers to do their part by purchasing plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles.  During his State of the Union speech in January, President Obama announced that he wants 1 million of these alternative cars on our roads by 2015.

What does the U.S. auto industry have to do with Rare Earth Elements? The current grip-hold China has on the REE market could easily impact the cost of the products the President is urging American manufacturers to make more of and asking consumers to purchase. Rare Earth elements essentially make all of these emerging technologies work.

Rare Earths are used in a number of automotive applications such as catalytic converters and other auto parts. The batteries that power plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles (such as the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf) require some REEs in combination with Neodymium permanent magnets, which is a light Rare Earth element. However, manganese (not a REE but 100 percent imported by the U.S. due to lack of our own deposits) is most commonly found in newer lithium-ion batteries.

Right now, China provides 97 percent of global Rare Earths production.  The U.S. provides a fraction of one percent.  But shift to known reserves – the potential to provide future supply – and the numbers tell a different story:  China has 36 percent of known reserves, with the U.S. accounting for 13 to 15 percent.

With China keeping more and more of its Rare Earth elements off of the world market, how does the Administration expect the automotive industry to reach its goal in four years without exploring the resources available to us in America?

The post What the Auto Industry, Rare Earth Elements have in Common appeared first on American Resources Policy Network.

The Tellurium in the title is an element critical to new solar panel applications. As New Scientist puts it: “Demand for many of these unsung elements is soaring, so much so that it could soon outstrip supply.”

The catch, as I outlined in my House testimony, is that you can’t mine Tellurium. It’s recovered — extracted — in the course of mining copper or, to a lesser extent, some gold and lead deposits.

At present, one company in the U.S. extracts Tellurium from copper. Last year, U.S. manufacturers imported 49 percent of the Tellurium they used from China.

The post Is Tellurium the “new gold?” appeared first on American Resources Policy Network.

One of my main goals was to highlight that in order to maintain our modern economy, we need a steady supply of metals and minerals – and that choosing not to produce the ones we have beneath our home turf perpetuates a needless and potentially harmful foreign dependence.

Subcommittee Chairman Doug Lamborn (R, CO-05) set the tone in his opening remarks:

We will continue to ship American jobs overseas and forfeit our economic competitiveness unless we take steps to develop our own mineral resources … Developing our Nation’s mineral resources is not only an integral part of an all-of-the-above energy plan but it will create long-term family wage jobs, stimulate our economy and reduce our foreign dependence on mineral resources.

Congress isn’t lacking these days for issues demanding its attention.  ARPN will be watching to see whether Chairman Lamborn and his fellow Members who have the House Natural Resource portfolio can get their colleagues to give resource security the attention it deserves.

The post U.S. House subcommittee focuses on America’s resource dependency appeared first on American Resources Policy Network.

With China tightening its rare earths export policies yet again, and some commodity prices soaring to record highs, Tuesday’s hearing couldn’t be more timely. Watch it live via http://naturalresources.house.gov/Live/ and check for updates on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ARPNetwork and Twitter (@ARPNetwork).

The post ARPN to testify on metals, minerals policy challenges before U.S. House Subcommittee appeared first on American Resources Policy Network.

This “modern day gold rush” is a manifestation of the increasing importance of metals – in this case, a precious metal – in times of turbulence.

Indeed, value-storing metals like gold, silver, and platinum are considered “safe-haven assets,” and are particularly attractive for an individual’s investment portfolio.

The strategic importance of metals, however, stretches well beyond the precious category.  As they are key ingredients in a broad range of products, securing an ongoing supply of industrial and specialty metals and minerals amidst geopolitical challenges is becoming increasingly critical for a nation’s technological advancement, economic growth, and national security. Countries like China are acting accordingly, as the race for resources has begun. But the question that remains to be answered is, “America ready to compete?”

The post Global events send price of gold soaring appeared first on American Resources Policy Network.