While the demand for copper continues to increase amid the rise of data centres, electric cars and the global push to reindustrialise, copper production has lagged, with global copper supply unable to keep up with demand.

Copper prices are also rising owing to trade wars and resource nationalism, with the US expected to place further tariffs on the refined metal.

Speaking on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast, Ivanhoe Mines founder and co-chairperson Robert Friedland this week discussed the forces driving copper demand and why the world is facing a profound shortage of the metal needed to power the next generation of global infrastructure.

He also explored the challenges of bringing new copper supply to market, the importance of critical minerals to national security and the increasingly complex global competition for resources.

“At the rate of current global economic growth, with eight-billion people on this planet, to maintain 3% GDP growth – absent the electrification of the world economy, absent electric cars – . . . we need to mine that same amount of copper that we mined in the last 10 000 years in the next 18 years and those of us that are in the industry don't see that as being possible,” he said.

Friedland also discussed the implications of the increasing electrical demand, driven by the increased use of AI, on copper, highlighting that these technologies are highly consumptive of electrical energy and copper intensive.

“We cannot, as an industry, find and responsibly mine the copper that we need for an energy transition with yesterday's technology. It's just impossible,” he expressed, noting the effects of global warming, as well as the issue of high diesel prices.

Additionally, Friedland examined the effects of the Middle East war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on copper production.

He explained that the closure of the Strait has caused an increase in the price of sulphuric acid which is used to heap leach copper. He noted that about 25% of copper recovered globally requires sulphuric acid to leach it.

“We do think it is, with great difficulty, possible to innovate our way out of this mess, but it's going to be very tough and it's going to be a very closely fought thing,” he said.

“We are dependent on becoming technologically savvy and a technological revolution. It's not going to be easy,” he added.