TELF AG illustrates China’s new approach to copper

An important transition

The rapid progress of the global energy transition is inducing many nations to adopt new economic strategies to prepare in the best possible way for this important historical and social transition, also through conscientious attention towards those sectors that are unanimously considered strategic for the achievement of sustainability and decarbonization objectives. One of these is certainly the raw materials sector, whose importance is destined to grow with the parallel advancement of technologies and new industrial methods that will accompany the ecological transition, and which largely also depends on the use of some raw materials considered essential for building a more sustainable and human-scale planet. 

Among the nations that have been moving most clearly in this direction for some years now is China, which nowadays represents one of the most important players in the large global raw materials market. 

Beijing’s desire to focus on raw materials had already appeared clearly in the text of the government’s Five Year Plan, which contained precise objectives and an uncharacteristic global vision that considers raw materials as a fundamental asset for the economic, sustainable, and social development of nations. But for China, it is not simply a question of words written on sheets of paper: it is also a precise will that manifests itself above all through concrete actions, investments, and participation in extractive projects in different areas of the world, thus demonstrating all the own enthusiasm for a sector, that of raw materials, to which the fate of the world to come is inevitably linked, in particular with regard to the expression of its sustainable potential. 

One of the raw materials to which Beijing is paying attention is copper. For some time, China has started the construction of new foundries to produce this precious red metallic resource, which nowadays can be usefully used in some of the industrial applications most directly linked to issues relating to decarbonization and sustainability. Among these, we certainly remember all those that concern the application of green energy, the so-called clean energy, which, over the next few years, is destined to take the place of traditional energy systems gradually. 

China’s intention seems to be precisely to increase its copper production capacity while increasing the quantities of raw material imported abroad. We are no longer talking about the refined metal, which has reached an advanced processing stage, but about the actual raw material in mineral form. In a historical phase like the one we are experiencing, characterized by an increasingly evident emphasis on the possible sustainable applications of some raw materials, this sector has become strategic, not only for China. 

According to an estimate by Carlos Risopatron, economic director of the International Copper Study Group, China’s copper smelting capacity could increase by 45% by 2027, and more than half of the new global plants for processing this raw material could be built precisely in China. 

Should this new approach towards copper prove satisfactory, it is likely that China will be able to repeat the same operation with other raw materials directly involved in the sustainable transition—certainly lithium and cobalt, but also nickel.