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March 2025 – A single metal that enabled the Bronze Age now underpins the fight against climate change. Copper, humanity’s first worked metal, is the most critical material for the global decarbonization drive. Without it, electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines simply cannot exist. Yet the copper supply chain is highly concentrated, with China controlling the vast majority of refining capacity. This concentration raises strategic questions for the United States and other nations racing to secure clean energy supply chains.
Copper’s unique conductivity and durability make it essential for two of the largest emission‑producing sectors: transportation and power generation.
Transportation accounts for about 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Replacing fossil‑fuel vehicles with electric vehicles (EVs) dramatically increases copper demand. A conventional car uses roughly 23 kilograms of copper; a plug‑in hybrid EV requires 60 kg, and a battery‑powered EV needs 83 kg. This three‑to‑fourfold jump means that every million EVs sold add tens of thousands of metric tons of copper demand.
Electricity generation and industry together produce nearly 40% of emissions. Switching to solar and wind requires enormous copper quantities. For each megawatt of solar photovoltaic capacity, about 2,900 kilograms of copper are needed. Onshore wind turbines use 2,900 kg per megawatt; offshore turbines require 8,000 kg per megawatt. To put that in perspective, one megawatt of solar can power roughly 200 average U.S. homes, while a single large wind turbine can generate up to 15 megawatts.
The energy transition essentially replaces petroleum with copper. Copper doesn’t produce energy, but it makes the new energy infrastructure possible. Without copper, there are no solar panels, no wind farms, no EVs, and no upgraded grid.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), copper demand from clean energy technologies could double by 2040 – and we must produce as much copper in the next 25 years as humanity has mined in all of history.
Copper is not rare – it makes up 0.006% of the Earth’s crust – but economic deposits are scarce. Thirteen giant mines produce the bulk of the world’s copper, and they are located in just four countries: Chile, Peru, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Indonesia. Chile alone accounts for about 25% of global mined copper.
These 13 mines are majority‑owned by six multinational mining giants: BHP (Australia), Glencore (Switzerland), Freeport‑McMoRan (United States), Zijin (China), Anglo‑Teck (Canada), and Codelco (Chile’s state‑owned company). Codelco is the result of Chile’s 1971 nationalization, a bold move to reclaim national resources.
The scale is staggering. The Bingham Canyon mine in Utah, once the world’s largest open‑pit copper mine, is visible from the moon. Today, moving 100 tons of material yields just one ton of copper. Copper mining moves more earth than any other human activity.
Copper ore is crushed and concentrated into a “matte” containing 20–40% copper. This low‑value stage is often done near the mine. But the real value – smelting and refining into high‑purity copper – happens far away. China dominates this stage, processing over 50% of the world’s refined copper. It imports copper ores and concentrates from Chile, Peru, and the DRC, shipping them over 12,000 nautical miles.
This is not Ricardo’s win‑win trade. It is a processing hierarchy where high‑value operations are controlled thousands of miles from extraction.
The U.S. is the world’s fifth‑largest copper mine producer, but domestic production falls far short of demand. The U.S. relies on imports of refined copper, much of it from China (indirectly, via Chile and Peru). This dependence poses a strategic risk.
To address this, the U.S. Department of Energy has designated copper as a critical material under the Inflation Reduction Act. The Resolution Copper project in Arizona (a joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP) could supply up to 25% of U.S. annual copper demand if permitted. However, the project has faced years of environmental and tribal opposition. In 2023, the Biden administration paused a land swap needed for the mine, citing the need for further review.
Simultaneously, the U.S. is investing in copper recycling. According to the Copper Development Association, nearly 50% of
