BHP - the future is copper18 Oct 2019 22:06
....and we all know where their next big mine will be, don't we?
https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/bhp-hopes-renewables-push-will-help-it-cash-in-on-copper-20191018-p531vd
London | BHP's top executives have talked up the potential of copper as one of the company's most attractive long-term businesses, saying the company was well placed to respond to an expected demand surge of at least 500 per cent during the transition to a low-carbon world.
"Decarbonisation and electrification requirements for copper are going to be significant," chairman Ken MacKenzie told the company's London annual general meeting.
Coining it? BHP hopes its copper operations will profit from the decarbonisation trend.
"If you look at whether it be solar power or wind power, the requirements for copper in both of those renewable energy technologies is significant.
"I drive an electric car myself and it has four times the amount of copper in it than a fossil-fuel powered car. So we feel very good about our position in copper."
CEO Andrew Mackenzie said rising copper demand during the transition to renewable energy could stoke investment in copper production to between five times and 20 times today's level.
"There are a lot of things that have to play out in the world of copper as to how that supply will be met, and what kind of price levels will be necessary to trigger that supply," he told reporters in London after the AGM.
He anticipated challenges in finding new ore bodies in countries with stable government and receptive communities. There were also risks in handling the tailings sensitively, and in ensuring successful block caving.
Whitehaven Coal's first climate risk audit finds that Australian coal will earn advantage in a carbon coinstrained world
So a company like BHP is well-positioned, he said, because it had good existing mines where the communities were receptive and water scarcity issues had been dealt with through renewable-powered desalination.
This represented "a potentially quite advantageous position, because there are so many question marks politically, above ground as well as below ground, about greenfields copper supply".
"If you have good copper deposits and you're good at copper this is one of the most attractive businesses for BHP to invest in for the long term," he said.
"That's why ultimately we want to make a success out of Olympic Dam, and why we will of course continue to push the technology in places like Escondida so that we can mine lower grade at appropriate cost and still maintain the volumes we're getting there."
He said the question of whether Olympic Dam would have a desalination operation like that in Chile depended on how big the mine got, but "clearly when we were talking about open-pit, [we were] assuming we build a similar desalination operation to the one we have in Chile right now".
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