Copper: We Have a Problem
Why the world’s most critical metal is structurally short supply and consensus is still behind the ball.
Copper demand is set to rise by more than we have ever produced.
BHP’s own published outlook calls for global copper demand to grow roughly 70% to more than 50 million tonnes PER year by 2050. The world produced approximately 22 million tonnes in 2024. Total copper mined throughout the entire 6,000 years of human civilisation is around 700 million tonnes. The cumulative demand the global economy needs to meet between 2025 and 2050, integrating under that demand curve, runs close to 1 BILLION tonnes. We need to mine more copper in the next 25 years than humans have mined since the Bronze Age. We are not equipped to do this. We have not even tried in a millennia.
