More than anything else, rapid urbanization is driving demand for critical minerals like copper around the world.
Delivering the opening keynote address at this year’s Prospectors and Developers Association Conference (PDAC) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, BHP (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BHP) CEO Mike Henry spoke to the opportunities and challenges posed by the growth of urban centers around the world.
His presentation discussed how the mining industry, including Canada’s, can respond to the growing demands on the resource sector and deliver the critical minerals that will be required over the next few decades.
The opportunity: Copper and critical mineral demand outpacing supply
Over the last 10 years, there has been a global population redistribution. For the first time, more of the world’s population lives in urban centers than in rural areas. Along with this shift has come greater densification, which has pushed electrical grids to their limits.
However, as Henry pointed out, this is just the beginning. By 2050, the global population will grow by 25 percent to 10 billion people, and the vast majority of them will live in urban centers.
“They are the engines of massive opportunity for our industry. More high rises, homes, roads and infrastructure, greater electrification, more phones, televisions, cars and air conditioning. More energy, more data centers to power AI and cloud computing,” he said.
This population boom means the world will need more of everything, from copper and steel to potash and other minerals.
As a company, BHP is a global powerhouse. Its portfolio of assets touches on a variety of minerals that will be critical in the coming decades; few, however, may be as important as copper. Henry suggests that demand for red metal will rise 70 percent over the next 15 years.
The massive surge in demand presents an enormous opportunity for the resource sector, especially for investors. Outlining the scale of capital required, Henry estimates that more than US$250 billion will be needed for mining and concentration to keep pace with demand growth, with additional funding needed for smelting and refining — and that’s just for copper.
When other minerals are added to the equation, the total could reach US$800 billion between now and 2040.
The first challenge: Finding significant critical mineral deposits in Canada
Although opportunities exist, they don’t come without challenges, and Henry suggests that the challenges exist both above and below ground.
“First, we’re going to have to find the resources… Those resources are big, large deposits that are becoming harder to find,” he said. “They’re deeper, they’re more remote, they come with new technical challenges, and they’re often in riskier jurisdictions.”
This has led to BHP rethinking how it invests in exploration, seeing them not only fund and carry…
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