Copper mines like Rio Tinto’s Bingham Canyon mine on the outskirts of Salt Lake City are on the frontline of America’s transition to clean energy.
Global demand for copper, a serious part of electric vehicles, is anticipated to develop from 25 million metric tons to practically 49 million metric tons by 2035, in accordance to S&P Global.
But miners face a mess of points as they ramp up manufacturing, together with addressing the issues of native stakeholders, mitigating environmental harm and working in distant areas of the world.
“There’s going to be an actual drawback with this transition over the subsequent ten years,” stated Tyler Broda, metals and mining analyst for RBC Capital Markets. “It is very, very onerous for these firms to even keep the degree of manufacturing that they’ve at the second.”
Jointly based mostly in Australia and the UK, Rio Tinto is one among the world’s largest mining firms with initiatives in 35 nations. It has 17 iron ore mines in Western Australia that produce materials utilized in metal, in addition to mines that produce aluminum, diamonds, and boron, a part utilized in smartphones.
So what is Rio Tinto doing to ramp up manufacturing of its critical minerals enterprise? CNBC obtained a behind the scenes have a look at Rio Tinto’s Utah operation to discover out.