The US has a copper drawback. Merely put, the U.S. makes use of a whole lot of it and there aren’t sufficient American mines to drag it out of the bottom quick sufficient. However Ivanhoe Electrical is transferring towards turning into the primary U.S.-based firm to open a copper mine stateside in over a decade – and with copper costs taking pictures to report highs, the timing couldn’t be higher.
President Donald Trump issued an govt order in March hoping so as to add copper to the vital minerals checklist, which might expedite allowing and supply tax incentives to mining corporations. And on July 8, the president introduced a 50% tariff on copper imports beginning Aug. 1.
The U.S. solely produces about half the copper it makes use of, rating fifth in manufacturing behind Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru and China. A part of the reason being that it takes a mean of 29 years for copper mines to start manufacturing, resulting from a prolonged allowing and approval course of.
However Ivanhoe Electrical’s Santa Cruz Undertaking, about 40 miles south of Phoenix in Casa Grande, Arizona, goals to be up and operating by 2028, solely eight years because it began the mission.
“It’s like tomorrow in mining terms. It’s incredibly, incredibly fast and incredibly efficient,” mentioned Taylor Melvin, president and CEO of the Tempe-based firm. “One of our great advantages is being on private land here in Arizona. It allows us to have a much more streamlined permitting process, which allows us to have a more accelerated timetable to construction and production.”
The corporate has been amassing core samples throughout its 6,000 acres of land, plotting the perfect spots to mine. The mine shall be underground and there’s sufficient copper to provide almost 3 billion kilos of copper over the subsequent 23 years. When accomplished, it might “place us in the top five or six mines in the United States,” says Melvin.
One other benefit of the mine is how the copper is extracted. There are solely two copper smelters within the U.S., that means a lot of the copper that’s mined will get shipped abroad to be processed. However Ivanhoe Electrical will use leaching to extract the copper, because of the traits of the ore discovered on the Santa Cruz mine website.
“We’ll be producing pure copper metal on this site ready for consumption by U.S. consumers,” mentioned Melvin.
And People – and the remainder of the world – are set to eat much more. In line with the Worldwide Vitality Company, demand for copper was round 26 million tons in 2024. In 2050, that quantity is predicted to succeed in almost 40 million tons.
However there’s one main drawback: many mines shall be empty by then, that means manufacturing is about to go down until new mines are established.
“Copper is absolutely a critical metal. We need copper for every aspect of our economy. We need it to expand and improve our electric grid. We need to support technological advances like artificial intelligence and the data centers that are required to support AI. And we absolutely need copper for our defense industry,” mentioned Melvin. “So it’s really hard to imagine a metal that is more critical and in higher volume than copper.”
That leaves Ivanhoe Electrical and different U.S. copper corporations in a robust place. Building of the Santa Cruz mission will make use of 900 full-time employees, falling to round 600 after completion and throughout the mining part. Most of the positions pays six figures, and the roles are all however assured for the subsequent 25 years.
And with the backing of Trump and with hopes of formally transferring copper onto the vital minerals checklist, mining corporations have a constructive outlook.
“In my 25 years in the natural resources in the copper mining industry, I’ve never seen a more supportive environment for domestic mining than we have right now,” mentioned Melvin. “We’re in the perfect place at the perfect time with a project. To be a U.S. company with a product in the United States on private land that can produce copper metal to supply domestic demand is perfect at the time for Ivanhoe Electric, and it’s a great environment in the United States for domestic mining right now.”
