Copper Shortage in Sight

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

Read this in an article about the possibility of a shortage in battery minerals:

"Electric cars use twice as much copper as internal combustion engines. So-called smart-home systems - such as Alphabet Inc’s Nest thermostat and Amazon.com Inc’s Alexa personal assistant - will consume about 1.5 million tonnes of copper by 2030, up from 38,000 tonnes today, according to data from consultancy BSRIA."

Where does all this copper go in Alexa and this Nest thing? Here's the article.

[Osama + 248]

14 hours ago, Marina Schwarz said:

Read this in an article about the possibility of a shortage in battery minerals:

"Electric cars use twice as much copper as internal combustion engines. So-called smart-home systems - such as Alphabet Inc’s Nest thermostat and Amazon.com Inc’s Alexa personal assistant - will consume about 1.5 million tonnes of copper by 2030, up from 38,000 tonnes today, according to data from consultancy BSRIA."

Where does all this copper go in Alexa and this Nest thing? Here's the article.

So if there is a under-investment in mining and it has to go up and it might as we work towards a cleaner future with EVs etc...isn't this the perfect irony?

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

13 minutes ago, Osama said:

So if there is a under-investment in mining and it has to go up and it might as we work towards a cleaner future with EVs etc...isn't this the perfect irony?

There is no under-investment in copper mining.  The world production is roughly 20 million tons.  There is lots more out there to go mine.  You are not going to see shortages of copper.  

The big user of copper is wire and electric motors.  As copper prices rise, some portion of the wire and cable business will switch to aluminum wire.  I don't see electric motors built out of aluminum wire, though. As for those home systems, that is more of a fad. I don't see them becoming big consumption items. Cheers.

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

7 hours ago, Osama said:

So if there is a under-investment in mining and it has to go up and it might as we work towards a cleaner future with EVs etc...isn't this the perfect irony?

It is certainly a very good-looking irony, yes. But note that it's not just EVs. It's gadgets, gadgets, gadgets as well.

[DanilKa + 443]

EVs use ~4x more copper and that’s doesn’t include charging infrastructure. Due to high current requirements Copper can’t be replaced there (unless using silver or gold:))

[Okie + 83]

On the subject of copper, I remember reading a few years ago that they found a huge (i.e. trillions of dollars worth) of copper somewhere in Alaska, but there was a concern about salmon feeding and breeding grounds below the area that needed to be mined.  Here is a story about it.  I don't know what has happened since then.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/proposed-pebble-mine-alaska-could-threaten-world-s-largest-salmon-n844431