Excellent find, Aqua. Recommended reading that affirms my biases...

Excellent find, Aqua. Recommended reading that affirms my biases and positioning.

Fun bits for those too tired to read it:

Keith Spence: With respect to copper, grades are going down. I would say it’s the most critical of all the minerals right now. There’s not going to be any charging stations without copper. If you look at where copper comes from, there’s lots of problems in Peru, Chile, Argentina. Chile is the world’s largest supplier of copper. And in Africa where Zambia is a major producer, they have significant problems with respect to production. I think this copper issue is going to be a big one going forward, even more than what we’re seeing with lithium right now.

and

I wouldn’t say fossil fuels are the sure bet. I’d say copper is the commodity that is most required and the lead time to deliver scale is quite long and mainstream investors are going to invest in that commodity.

.Justin Machin: I think with copper specifically, the cupboard is bare. For several reasons, primarily ESG driven. Permitting timelines have blown out. In many cases, it takes four or five years just to permit a project after you fully de-risked it. And the de-risking process itself can take upwards of 10 years. So, there’s no ability to turn on the taps and mobilize new copper supply.To bring on new copper in the near term, we need higher incentive prices to unlock some large low-grade copper porphyries that have been de-risked. Otherwise, I think it’s going to be a painful period as we try and de-risk new supply.

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The statement: "mainstream investors are going to invest in that (Cu) commodity" is future tense and holds the view the broader investor class is not yet aware and is therefore under-invested.

Long-term investors will have seen Mr Market throw buckets of capital at 'the next big thing' and what it does to share prices.

IMHO, Cu will be the key constraint in the electrical revolution. Li and REE not so much.

Ash