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Heather Exner-Pirot is director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
Copper is the metal of electrification. It’s essential for power transmission, batteries, renewables and more. Most net-zero scenarios require a doubling of production for the red metal, an unlikely task made impossible without greater dependence on Chinese supplies.
Events in Panama this week with Canadian miner First Quantum Minerals Ltd. show how a world opposed to more copper extraction will fail to displace fossil fuels.
In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the role of metals such as copper, nickel, lithium and rare earths in the energy transition, earning them the moniker of “critical minerals.”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine highlighted the folly of relying on potential adversaries for your energy security. It led to the realization among the West’s political class that the production of most energy-transition metals is concentrated in a handful of countries, many of them politically unstable, before being refined in China. The supply chain for clean electricity is a tightrope.
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