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We ran out of cheap pure copper a long time ago. Now we're producing copper out of ores that contain a very small proportion of copper. If the price goes up
by bryanlarsen 11mo ago
We ran out of cheap pure copper a long time ago. Now we're producing copper out of ores that contain a very small proportion of copper. If the price goes up we'll produce copper from ores that contain an even smaller fraction of copper.
Copper is 60 ppm of the crust. As long as the price keeps going up, we'll never run out.
- pfdietz 11mo agoSeafloor massive sulfides and manganese nodules also have significant amounts of copper. But I would like to see improvements in copper recycling and in breeding of copper hyperaccumulator plants.
- XorNot 11mo agoIt's also an asymmetric process: getting setup for less pure ore is capital intensive, but once you are the available abundance of your new feedstock can push prices lower then they were before.