Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm also confirmed that the Anglo-Australian miner was constantly the lookout for other opportunities through which its exposure to the red metal could “grow further”.
“We are the world’s largest producer of iron ore,we are the Western world’s largest producer of aluminum,we are the world’s largest producer of titanium slag,and we are only the top-five[or] top-10 producer of copper,” Stausholm said.
“You can see that as a negative. I see it as a positive. It’s an area where we can grow and where we are growing.”
Loading
Rio Tinto was cautious about buying into a “heated market”,Stausholm said,as major mining groups in Australia and around the world raced to lock in greater supplies of the red metal.
“While we are looking we are sometimes saying ‘we are not prepared to pay those prices’,” he said.
As a key ingredient to build electrical wiring,copper will be needed in vastly greater quantities in the build-out of renewable generation and transmission projects,while electric cars require up to four times more copper than internal combustion engine vehicles.