The outro from the post immediately below, "Benchmark: "More than 300 new mines required to meet battery demand by 2035":
This report doesn't even get into copper. For more on cupric we have a thread from a former mine manager coming up.
At the moment copper and silver prices are being driven (lower) mostly by the strength of the dollar, and to a lesser extent by the unbelievable reality that we have real rates at negative 4 to 5% finally pulling in closer to 0%. Supply/demand are currently in approximate balance with the recession coming in U.S. housing and a depression coming in Chinese shelter construction being offset by increased demand for wind turbines and electric vehicles.
These macro forces are why we've been negative on copper's price since $4.40 and continue to think the $3.13 July low will be tested with a real possibility of sub-$3.00 for a while.
And from a twitter rando who was recommended to me and who, as far as I can tell, does not put a foot wrong in his discussion, "B.F. Randall":
COPPER. I live near one of the largest copper mines on earth. I helped manage a smaller copper mine for 8 years. Observation: VRE-battery supporters are completely out of touch with the costs and fossil fuel / environmental impacts associated with copper mining & production. /1
COPPER is an essential and limited resource for civilization, dating back to the Bronze age. With the advent of electric power, world demand for copper suddenly became infinite. Butte, MT held the world's most important copper resources. And the whole world came to Butte /2
Several lines of my family converged in Butte from as far away as Croatia and North Carolina - to mine copper. My mother was born in Butte. I know a thing or two about it. /3
A 3-MW wind turbine contains up to 4.7 tons of copper. Half is from the cable and wiring, 24% from the turbine/power generation components, 4% from transformers, and 19% from turbine transformers. Onshore wind farms use approximately 7,766 lbs. of copper per MW. /4
....MUCH MORE (threadreader)
Okay, maybe not a complete rando, the above is Mr. Randall just clearing his throat.
As he gets into in the rest of the thread he casually drops a staggering amount of information, especially considering how economical-with-words the man is.
Futures $3.2990
