According to miningnews Net website reported that bank of America (hereinafter referred to as “Bank of America”) warned that the global mining industry needs to increase investment by US $81billion annually before 2030 to meet the growing demand for metals to achieve decarbonization and climate goals.
Bank of America estimates that in the past 10 years, the annual average investment in global mining development was US $99.5 billion. To achieve the goal of decarbonization, the global mining industry should increase investment in key metals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, silver and platinum.
“The investment of mining enterprises is seriously insufficient… The shortage has become a real threat,” said the bank’s analysts.
The bank suggests that the global mining industry needs to double its investment to US $160billion a year to achieve the net zero emission target by 2050.
“The supply of raw materials in the market has become tight, and may become even tighter in the future. According to the current resource situation and the balance between supply and demand in the market, we believe that the goal of controlling the temperature rise to 1.5 ° C in 2050 may not be achieved.”.
In order to achieve the goal set in the Paris climate agreement that the temperature rise is less than 1.5 ° C, greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced to net zero, that is, the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere and released from the atmosphere should be balanced.
“Given the current supply channels and investment plans, it may be difficult for mining enterprises to avoid shortages, which puts the net zero emission target at risk,” said bank of America.
In recent years, large mining companies usually use their profits to pay dividends to shareholders, buy back shares or focus on mergers and acquisitions.
Due to insufficient investment from mining enterprises, new discoveries of major metal deposits, including copper, have decreased.
With the decline of the stock market and the increase of interest rates, the future of new mining project investment is more uncertain.
Due to the increase in the use of electric vehicles and the strong demand for lithium, the investment in lithium mine development has increased.
