It's getting harder & more expensive to get #Copper out of the ground
Great report from Bloomberg on the difficulties facing the #Mining industry in meeting the growing need for more Copper.
After more than a century of commercial production at Chile's Chuquicamata reduced the amount of ore that can profitably be extracted from surface, two decades ago state-run Codelco began drawing up plans to build a modern underground mine at the site to tap the riches deep below. The company originally envisioned a $2 billion investment. By the time its board signed off on the project in 2014, the budget had risen to $4.2 billion. At the time of the 2019 ribbon-cutting, it had climbed to $5.5 billion. The latest estimate, including related infrastructure, is $7 billion, making it the biggest outlay Codelco's history.
Those obstacles can drain miners' enthusiasm for new projects. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates the industry needs to spend $150 billion over the next decade to address a projected 8-million-ton annual supply shortfall. That would require prices to surpass $10,000 a ton, from the current level of around $9,500, Trafigura Group CEO Jeremy Weir told the conference in Santiago this week.
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Codelco is now paying the price—along with Chile's government—for prioritizing payments into state coffers while putting off investments in overhauling depleting mines. Back in 2016 the company was projecting its average annual output would rise to 2.1 million tons through 2040. That forecast has been slashed to about 1.6 million tons, according to a recent company presentation. The difference between the two amounts to enough copper to make 6 million Teslas a year.
Codelco now finds itself in the unenviable position of having to juggle four giant projects simultaneously as part of a $40 billion pipeline—an undertaking few private-sector rivals would ever attempt.
See the whole article on Bloomberg here:
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