My comments here are necessarily very broad-brush.
Access to sufficient minerals and metals in the electrical revolution is a vexed and multi-dimensional issue.
In Australia, we anticipate replacing or upgrading just about every component in generation, grid and switchgear.
Then look at Europe, where the Ukraine war makes the same transition VERY URGENT. Without sufficient electricity, citizens will die and economic activity will collapse. So electricity companies are placing firm, price-insensitive orders for prompt delivery with electrical equipment manufacturers, who in turn need metals. Meanwhile, electricity rationing has curtailed metals production there.
Higher prices are needed to prompt additional supply, yet a genuine supply response involves years of delay, up to a decade to bring a new orebody into production. This isn't government 'red tape'. An orebody needs sufficient drilling to define, mine planning, concentrator engineering, power supply, and on and on. Difficult to compress this timeline as many stages have to be completed in sequence.
There is a certain amount of substitutability in battery metals, though I expect that to be overwhelmed by insistent demand. Every grid operator on earth wants abundant battery capacity in their network to time-shift and stabilise. This demand is nearly as big as for electric car batteries.
Copper sits at the apex of the metals dilemma.
There is no practical substitute for Copper.
From memory, 2022 supply of 24mt V 2030 demand of 40mt looks a big leap: dig deeper, lower grade.
GK & team: buy SFR. Overpaid for Matsa, but at current $A1.5b mc, Matsa is reasonably priced and Mateo comes for free. Cu Zn Mines in Spain, Cu Au mines in development in Botswana and a Perth HQ without a CEO or a strategy. A house of cards.
Matsa and Mateo would sit well in S32. Plenty capacity to execute and bed this down before the big capex at Hermosa.
Ash
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