BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company and the third-largest copper producer, has estimated that the world will need to double copper production over the next 30 years to keep pace with decarbonisation technologies such as electric cars, offshore wind and solar farms. To that end, BHP is teaming up with tech giant Microsoft to harness next-generation technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics to unlock even more production and value from the existing Escondida copper mine at a time when new mines are in decline. The Escondida mine in northern Chile is by far the world's most productive open pit copper mine annually, accounting for about 8 per cent of global output.
In addition to BHP, Minmetals' Las Bambas copper mine is expected to invest $2 billion in Peru over the next few years to expand production and help it return to the top 10 copper producers in the world.
According to Mining.com, Argentina plans to create a "Copper Board" to promote copper projects in the country that are not progressing fast enough due to a lack of support. These include:
Canada's McEwen Mining is in the late stages of exploration for its Los Azules mine in SAN Juan province, which has 13.4 million tonnes of reserves and is expected to produce 186,000 tonnes of copper a year.
Canada's First Quantum Minerals is also in advanced stages of exploration for its Takataka Taka mine in Salta province, which has 11.65 million tonnes of reserves and is expected to produce 227,000 tonnes of copper a year.
The Marra mine in Catamaka province, currently in the pre-feasibility study stage, is a joint venture between Canada's Yamana Gold, Switzerland's Glencore and Newmont of the US. The project has 7.8 million tons of reserves and is expected to produce 155,000 tons of copper per year.
The Jose Maria mine, under construction in SAN Juan province, is owned by Lundin Mining, a Canadian company. The project has 4.6 million tons of reserves and is expected to produce 280,000 tons of copper per year.
The mine, located in SAN Juan province and in the pre-feasibility study stage, is owned by Filo Mining of Canada and has 1.8 million tonnes of reserves and is expected to produce 67,000 tonnes of copper a year.
El Alta, an advanced exploration joint venture between Canada's Aldebaran Resources and South Africa's Sibanye Stillwater, has 5.96m tonnes of reserves and a capacity of 127,000 tonnes of copper a year.
The advanced exploration stage El Pajon project in SAN Juan province, developed by Glencore, has 15.1 million tonnes of reserves and is expected to produce 131,000 tonnes of copper a year.
It can be predicted that, in order to future market share and position, the global copper enterprises are intensively "layout"!
