The chief geoscientist with IMDEX has called on the mining sector to address its tarnished reputation and abandon its cautious attitude towards risks. The warning highlighted the prevalence of a lack of awareness regarding the impending copper supply crisis.
Dr. Dave Lawie, who was speaking to geoscience students for the University of British Columbia’s Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Department, emphasized the need for effective communication about the role of mining in providing metals and minerals, including copper, for a low-carbon future.
He said that a failure to provide the metals and minerals needed would jeopardize the future of decarbonization and accelerated electrification.
“I have a saying for our industry at the moment. It can’t read the label from inside the bottle. On the outside of the bottle it says, ‘save the world’, but we can’t read the label,” Lawie said.
He also highlighted the challenges of finding enough copper to meet future demand, as well as the need to address declining copper grades and the geopolitical complexity of copper supply.
Source: MINING.COM
Image by Łukasz Klepaczewski from Pixabay