Former BHP copper boss Darryl Cuzzubbo says the mining giant is thinking in decades when it makes big moves such as its $60 billion takeover tilt at Anglo American.
“The problem in copper is two-fold. Mines are getting deeper and lower-grade, so it’s more costly to extract copper. And if you look at the development pipeline for large tier 1 copper projects, it’s pretty bare. That is despite a slump that has hit the world’s biggest non-China producers – Lynas Rare Earths and MP Materials – hard.
“It’s like the semiconductor crisis coming out of COVID. The car makers who had to pull back production at their heavily capitalised plants would have paid just about anything for a few extra chips.” “The opportunity for Arafura is to be the next Lynas, whether that’s to the Koreans, to the Europeans, whatever, but completely separate from the Chinese supply chain,” Mr Cuzzubbo said.“There’s two issues with the China supply chain. One is security of supply. They will inevitably look after their own EV industry before they look after other countries.