Interesting territory, All.
Why isn't copper a designated Critical Mineral?
This would oblige governments to involve themselves in Cu production and pull policy levers, as they are doing for all the metals that make it onto the list.
This doesn't answer the question, given the obvious Cu supply bottleneck directly before us.
A key insight in Mark Mills' presentation is around grades.
This makes clear the abrupt shift in mining difficulty that happens with grades below 1%. It isn't just energy consumption that goes berserk - the effort in terms of machinery, labour and capital to move dirt gets really ugly.
Good mine planning and clever engineering don't really help - these positive attributes are fully employed in mines of all grades.
I haven't solved the dilemma. Can anyone?
Ash
(20min delay)