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Copper designation may benefit clean energy, raises environmental concerns

December 16, 2024
Arizona lawmakers are advocating for copper to be added to the federal critical minerals list. They say the metal plays a vital role in renewable energy infrastructure and has the potential for financial benefits if designated.

Copper is essential for building solar panels, wind turbines and other renewable energy technologies. Experts forecast global demand for the metal could increase by as much as 600% by 2030.

The rising need for copper is also expected to increase the price of metal. Current estimates suggest a jump from around $9,000 per ton to as much as $40,000 per ton by decade’s end.

To address these anticipated costs, Arizona officials are urging the U.S. Geological Survey to recognize copper as a critical mineral. This designation could provide tax breaks and regulatory incentives for renewable energy developers.

While the Department of Energy already lists copper as a critical material, this classification doesn’t include the benefits of the Geological Survey’s critical minerals list.

The latter classification identifies minerals essential to the country’s economic and national security vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.

Inclusion on the Geological Survey’s list provides advantages such as accelerated permitting for energy and infrastructure projects.

Arizona has significant economic interests in this push, as the state produces roughly 70% of all copper mined in the U.S., generating over $6 billion annually for its economy.

However, the proposal has sparked environmental concerns. Critics argue that classifying copper as a critical mineral could open new mines without adequate public input, potentially near sacred tribal lands or popular fishing areas. These critics also worry about reduced oversight of mining operations.

Despite these objections, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Critical Mineral Consistency Act, which would add copper to the list. The measure now awaits action in the Senate.
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Tribal and environmental concerns stand in the way of obtaining 25% of US copper

July 31, 2024
Arizona officials claim the land that is planned for use by the Resolution Copper mine contains resources that are crucial for transitioning the U.S. energy sector to renewables. However, Native American tribes and environmentalists are raising concerns over the project’s potential impacts.

Indigenous groups assert that the proposed mining site lies on sacred ground that should remain undisturbed. Meanwhile, environmental advocates warn of a potential ecological “disaster” if mining plans proceed. The project has been in development for about 20 years, with over $2 billion invested, yet no copper has been extracted to date.

Developers say once operational, the mine could eventually support about a quarter of the nation’s copper demand. The value of this metal is expected to increase by over 75% next year alone, given its essential role in electric vehicles, renewable energy infrastructure, and AI-supporting data centers. Extracting this copper will require creating a two-mile-wide crater, deep enough to hold the Eiffel Tower.

“Put simply – we need copper,” Resolution Copper said in a statement. “With estimates for global copper demand from wind, solar, electric vehicles and battery applications expected to increase by 600%-900% by 2030, it is critical that projects like Resolution Copper are approved to bolster the United States’ copper supply.”

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Environmental Impact Statement highlights several potential consequences of this plan. Emissions from mining operations could affect air quality, and seepage from storage facilities might impact local water quality. Additionally, the presence of radioactive, toxic and hazardous materials poses risks to both environmental and human health.

Local Native American tribal leaders view the mining project as a “desecration” of their sacred lands, and have joined forces with environmentalists to take legal action against Resolution Copper, planning to escalate their fight to the Supreme Court.

“Our Apache war isn’t over, because no longer are they killing us and slaughtering our people and putting us in prisons, they’re gonna take our religion away,” said Naelyn Pike, a Chiricahua Apache activist. “And that’s another act of genocide, because we’re not Apache people if we don’t have no religion.”

Resolution Copper has launched a Native American affairs division to address Indigenous concerns and has spent an estimated $10 million on community assistance for the town of Superior, which surrounds the planned mine. This support is nearly triple the town’s annual revenue, and additional funds have been pledged to develop facilities aimed at boosting Superior’s tourism industry so the community’s economy is not solely reliant on copper mining.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions about mining,” said Leslie Burnette, a San Carlos Apache tribal member and senior advisor of Native American affairs at Resolution Copper. “The main thing that we try to do is let them know what the Resolution Copper project is about. We just want to make them comfortable about our project. I want our reservation to know that Resolution Copper respects and values are traditions. They’re here to support and grow with us.”

Mila Besich-Lira, Superior’s mayor, suggests that final approval for the mine could take another 10 to 20 years but believes it being granted is ultimately inevitable. She described the town’s relationship with the mine as an “arranged marriage” where both entities must coexist, adding that “copper mining isn’t going anywhere.”
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Renewable energy plan in Alaska could disturb thousands of acres of nature

April 17, 2024

Alaska’s wilderness is teeming with wildlife, as bears, moose, elk, and many more species all call this region home. However, beneath this vibrant ecosystem lies an extensive supply of metals, one that will require disturbing thousands of acres of nature to access.

The White House is expected to step in and put an end to the current plans of going after this metal deposit, despite the importance of these resources to the renewable energy transition.

The supply in question is located in a remote region of the state, where a 211-mile-long industrial road must first be built in order to make extracting any of it a possibility.

The proposed road, dubbed the Ambler Access Project, would cross hundreds of rivers and streams, as well as the tribal lands of several Alaska Native communities. Indigenous groups argue doing so would negatively impact the surrounding wildlife their people rely on. The groups said caribou migration patterns would be thrown off and important salmon spawning streams affected.

A 50-year right-of-way permit to move forward and build the road was issued by the federal government during former President Donald Trump’s final days in office. However, the current administration is now changing course. An upcoming environmental analysis of the project from President Joe Biden’s Interior Department will reportedly kill the proposed construction.

Meanwhile, investors in the project maintain these resources may actually need to be extracted anyways for the good of the environment. This is because the metals found here are vital for building renewable energy infrastructure.

According to a 2018 feasibility study, 159 million pounds a copper and 199 million pounds of zinc sit within the site.

Copper is among the most fundamental parts of constructing green energy technology, used to make things like solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and power grids. Zinc is similarly essential to building these things, as the World Economic Forum calls the mineral “critical for a low-carbon economy.”

Together, copper and zinc are two of the planet’s top five most used metals, which is why their deposits in Alaska have already seen tens of millions of dollars spent in the effort to reach them. Should the Biden administration ultimately kill the project, a legal battle from companies trying to recoup some of those expenses may follow.
Copper controversy: Russia, China profit from passing the metal off as scrap

April 16, 2024
A recent report from Reuters has exposed a scheme between Russia and China involving copper, a metal expected to skyrocket in value and hit record highs next year. Once the Russian metal arrives, Chinese companies are shredding these copper rods down to disguise them as scrap.

This is because of the difference in tariffs between these two products. Copper is cheaper to export in Russia than scrap, which is why the materials leave the country untouched. In China, copper import rates are much higher than scrap, so when the metal is received, it is then shredded into scrap before being taxed.

This process helps both sides skirt taxes and minimize the impact of Western trade sanctions.

The initiative started in December of 2023, where a massive spike in Chinese imports of Russian scrap can be observed. During that month, China imported 6,607 tons of copper scrap from Russia, but export records on Russian goods indicated the country only sent 73 tons to Chinese companies. This means millions of pounds of copper were actually shredded down and passed off as scrap after the fact.

Despite the stark data discrepancy, the reason this scrap scheme went unnoticed for so long is because of where it has been taking place. The copper wire is being shredded in China’s remote Xinjiang Uyghur region, a place infamous for its human rights abuses.

Beijing has faced international condemnation for its persecution of the Uyghur people. In response to the criticism, China has restricted access into the region, making it difficult for oversight to prevent things like the disguising of copper as scrap.

However, some Chinese manufacturers are now anonymously blowing the whistle on this metallic deception. They are speaking out against the scheme because it is putting their reputations and profits on the line.

When copper is altered to make it look like scrap, doing so also makes it harder to trace the material’s origin, offering a way around American and European bans on Russian exports in repose to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Ultimately, this allows Russian copper to be sold in various products to people in the U.S. and Europe, a dangerous prospect for manufacturers who could be held liable as this scheme comes further into light.
Related Stories

Copper designation may benefit clean energy, raises environmental concerns

Tribal and environmental concerns stand in the way of obtaining 25% of US copper

Renewable energy plan in Alaska could disturb thousands of acres of nature

Copper controversy: Russia, China profit from passing the metal off as scrap

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