EV vehicles

[Oz22]

On top of that, all these grid upgrades require huge amounts of copper......something that is getting more and more in short supply.

I read an article describing how a hundred years ago and more copper nuggets the size of cars were being dug out just below the surface of the ground in copper producing regions, now they have to process mountains of dirt to get it.

Today 0.5–1.0% copper is the average grade, so a ton of ore yields 7kg. That's from a vast open pit or a complex underground mine. All extracted by machines burning huge amounts of diesel naturally. Then it has to be crushed, processed and finally smelted.

With the gradual decrease in the grade of copper ores being processed, copper concentrates have become more complex with higher impurity and gangue content. This trend has had a detrimental effect on smelters as they have to increase throughput to maintain copper metal production, while increasing operating costs due to processing the increased amounts...
Most copper ores contain <1% copper and most of the energy and reagents used to extract that copper are consumed by the gangue minerals

It's all very complex and expensive and like a lot of mining processes there isn't the big profits like there used to be. Naturally in the future the problem will only get worse, like the problem with copper contamination is recycled steel. When they melt down cars and washing machines etc small amounts of copper get into the brew and it can't be extracted (economically). So it builds up and up over time. I recall that by about 2050 the copper content will so bad that the recycled steel produced will be unsuitable for structural use, being only good for making more washing machines and BBQ's

Naturally NO ONE is thinking of this at Tesla or any other big money making corporation. The world only thinks in quarterly profit statements now.

 

[TallTom]

I read an article describing how a hundred years ago and more copper nuggets the size of cars were being dug out just below the surface of the ground in copper producing regions, now they have to process mountains of dirt to get it.

Today 0.5–1.0% copper is the average grade, so a ton of ore yields 7kg. That's from a vast open pit or a complex underground mine. All extracted by machines burning huge amounts of diesel naturally. Then it has to be crushed, processed and finally smelted.


It's all very complex and expensive and like a lot of mining processes there isn't the big profits like there used to be. Naturally in the future the problem will only get worse, like the problem with copper contamination is recycled steel. When they melt down cars and washing machines etc small amounts of copper get into the brew and it can't be extracted (economically). So it builds up and up over time. I recall that by about 2050 the copper content will so bad that the recycled steel produced will be unsuitable for structural use, being only good for making more washing machines and BBQ's

Naturally NO ONE is thinking of this at Tesla or any other big money making corporation. The world only thinks in quarterly profit statements now.

Some people are thinking of it. Just not the EV fanboys.

We will hit a copper wall. It takes 15 years to get a new mine producing. We will need lots of new copper deposits.

Personally if EVs hit a 20% market share I'll be long on copper. It will be worth more than platinum before it all comes crashing down.

 

[jellyrug]

I read an article describing how a hundred years ago and more copper nuggets the size of cars were being dug out just below the surface of the ground in copper producing regions, now they have to process mountains of dirt to get it.

Today 0.5–1.0% copper is the average grade, so a ton of ore yields 7kg. That's from a vast open pit or a complex underground mine. All extracted by machines burning huge amounts of diesel naturally. Then it has to be crushed, processed and finally smelted.


It's all very complex and expensive and like a lot of mining processes there isn't the big profits like there used to be. Naturally in the future the problem will only get worse, like the problem with copper contamination is recycled steel. When they melt down cars and washing machines etc small amounts of copper get into the brew and it can't be extracted (economically). So it builds up and up over time. I recall that by about 2050 the copper content will so bad that the recycled steel produced will be unsuitable for structural use, being only good for making more washing machines and BBQ's

Naturally NO ONE is thinking of this at Tesla or any other big money making corporation. The world only thinks in quarterly profit statements now.

Copper Demand and Long-Term Availability - International Copper Association

Despite an ever-increasing demand for copper, there is more of the metal available today than at any other time in history.

internationalcopper.org