Copper and gold are equal.
Copper and gold are equal. The CEO of Iran’s National Copper Company announced a new discovery in the Sungun copper mines in East Azerbaijan. According to his statements, the known amount of copper in these mines, following a recent massive excavation, increased from 4 billion tons to 5 billion tons. This new significant discovery is good news for Iran. However, the big puzzle regarding copper mines, their extraction, and related income issues naturally affects the equations of private sector copper companies, the export process, and the method of currency return.
Beyond that, the groundwork laid for the export of this product, which private sector companies benefit from, must be assessed under sanction conditions and without the JCPOA. Any blessing provided for them under sanction equations, if within the private sector, should face serious taxation so that the rights of the people, as the real and indeed the only rightful owners of the country’s mines and wealth, are not lost.
Imposing special taxes under sanction conditions on individuals and companies for whom export opportunities are provided is essential. Beyond this fundamental warning, the discussion of this writing is about copper.
The general rule of expert economic interactions worldwide is the discussion of the skyrocketing prices of strategic metals and minerals. In the months following the relative stability of various countries after the Corona crisis, which was accompanied by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the prices of a specific group of strategic metals and minerals on one hand, and the supply and distribution cycle of their processed products on the other, became a topic of expert discussion and beyond that, a concern for politicians and governments.
If lithium and cobalt were the big puzzles of many new projects or the development of existing battery and electric vehicle lines and many other products, their importance for the key discussion of investment in combating climate change is evident. Naturally, products like electric vehicles play a serious role in changing the trend of fossil fuel consumption in the world. There is another metal tied to the massive investments dedicated to combating climate change: copper.
Copper was pure gold and will become even more golden.
Copper, which had the most golden role in the electrical industry, has always been important. A metal that is a capable conductor, it has given life to power lines, telegraphs, and telephones, and since the mid-19th century, with technological transformation, it has given meaning to the lighting, heating, and communications of modernizing urban life.
Emphasizing the historical and traditional importance of this metal is redundant and stating the obvious. However, what must be emphasized is the global movement to combat climate change, which has turned copper into one of the most important forces in this battle. Almost all clean energy production facilities and technologies, which now are a priority for many governments in terms of investment and production, rely on copper.
Even if the production and processing of this metal itself were polluting with its specific extraction and processing process, developments in related technologies have significantly reduced its pollution in modern mines and industries worldwide. Now all eyes are on copper resources, copper prices, and the dominant forces in the copper market. Three specific periods in recent decades must be identified in examining copper’s impact on the world.
Before the early years of the third millennium, Europe and America, with their factories and productions, were the most significant copper demanders in the world. After that, China began its influence in the third millennium, turning into a production hub. Foreign industries that moved to China to benefit from cheap labor paved the way for China to become the world’s most important copper seeker. The third period should be considered the era of a carbon-free world, which is set to be realized by 2050 for Europe and America, significantly increasing the global need for copper.
Where is copper and what has it done?
Copper is known to those interested in politics and contemporary world history with Chile. The 1970s and Chile’s key copper industry, which became the most important owner of this metal globally, saw Salvador Allende’s rise to power in that country, which meant distancing Chile’s politics and government from American interests, leading to Henry Kissinger’s bloody and regrettable coup in that country and the rise of Pinochet.
Apart from Chile, China, and America, which are in confrontation and battle with each other, have significant copper reserves. It should be noted that good, significant, and high-quality resources that are easy and economical to extract can be found in specific countries. Chile and Peru in South America, Congo and Zambia in Africa, and China in Asia have the most copper resources. New global political and economic equations now look to China and copper.
China and Copper
China is the most important player in the copper show. One scene has unfolded in an unexpected and strange place, which is none other than Afghanistan. The exploitation and development of the large Logar copper mines in this country have been seriously expanded and dominated by China in recent months through friendly cooperation and interaction with the Taliban.
One of the important reasons for the hidden political competition between China and America in a country like Congo, apart from strategic metals like cobalt and lithium, is the importance of this country’s copper mines. China, which has become Zambia’s benefactor, recently took on the leadership of a working group composed of countries that are Zambia’s creditors and helped clear part of Zambia’s debt. Of course, China is the largest investor in Zambia’s rich copper mines.
Beyond all this, China, which itself has significant copper resources, has dramatically increased its processing capacity on its soil due to its endless need for this metal. Copper processing facilities and industries in China are the unrivaled rulers of this industry in the world. This superiority has made China dominate the copper supply and distribution cycle.
The Near Future and the Copper Crisis
The most important point about copper as a strategic metal is the many-fold increase in the need for this metal by industries and markets in various countries. Concerns about the ability to supply copper for different industries worldwide peaked in the middle of last year. Now, a detailed report from the SP Global Strategic Studies Institute has been occupying all experts for some time.
Experts from this institute, in their report on the achievements of their recent extensive research, have explicitly warned policymakers about the prospect of the world’s growing need for copper in the shadow of the global push to develop clean energy production industries and zero out fossil fuel burning. According to this institute, the crisis of supply and demand imbalance in the copper market may begin in the middle of this decade.
In any case, until 2050, the world will seriously and increasingly need copper. America, during Biden’s era, has taken a significant step towards relying on domestic production and supply of strategic metals. Apart from developing mines, it wants to process minerals that it does not have in its soil to the maximum extent domestically. Europe views copper as the currency unit in the fight against climate change, and its plans for copper supply are serious.
In these circumstances, the news of discovering new metal reserves like copper is significant and major news for Iranians, and it is hoped that the profits from this God-given blessing reach the true owners of these mines, who are the people of Iran.
