Copper to be Excluded from Critical Minerals List
Informing Congress of its decision, letters from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have declared that copper will not be added to its roster of critical minerals.
A letter from the USGS dated May 1 was sent to several legislators, including Rep. Robert Latta of Ohio. Within this letter, David Applegate, Director for the agency, noted that its most recent data revealed an interesting trend, “imports of refined copper decreased in 2022 even as domestic copper consumption increased.”
Applegate also pointed out that there has been a rise in the net import reliance for refined copper between 2018 and 2021.
“In the [USGS] analysis for the 2022 list of critical minerals, the USGS assessed copper as having a relatively high economic vulnerability score, indicating that the U.S. manufacturing sector is vulnerable to a supply disruption, but this vulnerability was mitigated by a relatively low U.S. net import reliance on foreign supplies and a diversity of foreign supply sources,” he stated.
Applegate’s depiction of the U.S. copper industry emphasizes that the sector sustains a degree of internal production, while remaining heavily reliant on “long term allied” and trading partnerships for its imported red metal.
U.S. Processing Statistics Revealed
Recent reports suggest that a staggering 1.3 million tons of copper ore were successfully mined last year, with Arizona leading in production. According to Applegate, America has a range of domestic processing plants that can convert ore into copper.
“The U.S. has 25 operating copper mines, two smelters, two electrolytic refineries and 14 electrowinning facilities,” he says, though it’s uncertain how many of the sites are scrap-fed secondary plants, or if he is including those which feature recycled-content facilities in states such as Georgia and Kentucky.
Applegate mentions that while the Copper Development Association (CDA) in McLean, Virginia recognized over half of the world’s refined copper comes from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, “while factually correct, is not directly relevant to the copper supply of the United States.”
Statistical data from USGS indicates that imports of refined copper into the United States “are not dependent on any of the countries cited,” Applegate notes. “American imports of refined copper come predominantly from Chile, Canada and Mexico, reliable trade partners with whom the U.S. has free trade agreements.”
Many Press to have Copper on Critical Minerals List
Several entities have been pushing for copper to be included on America’s critical minerals list, and the CDA conducted its own research to prove why it’s essential.
The CDA President and CEO Andrew G. Kireta Jr. says the group is not convinced by the USGS’s arguments. “Despite clear data showing that copper’s supply risk score is now above the threshold for automatic inclusion on the 2022 Critical Minerals list, USGS sent well-crafted letters to a bipartisan group of congressmen and senators filled with misleading arguments that were not part of its own official 2022 methodology, or consistent with the spirit or letter of the law, to justify a decision to forego immediately adding copper to the list,” he explains.
“This decision was made even though Secretary [of the Interior Debra Ann] Haaland has the authority given to her by statute to add copper to the list without waiting for the next update in three years.”
Both Kireta and the CDA have suggested that the U.S. government should look to Europe as an example, where copper was recently declared a Critical Raw Material and Strategic Raw Material by the European Union. This decision was made after analyzing future supply and demand projections.
These communications between Latta and USGS as well as the CDA’s response can be accessed online.
