ABSTRACT: The world needs more mines to meet demand for copper and other battery metals, according to the chief financial officer of Hudbay Minerals Inc. , according to foreign media, to move to less polluting energy sources -- even if they are seen as unattractive to the environment. The world needs more mines to meet demand for copper and other battery metals, according to the chief financial officer of Hudbay Minerals Inc. , according to foreign media, to move to less polluting energy sources -- even if they are seen as unattractive to the environment. Stevie Douglas, chief financial officer of Hardby, said Wednesday at a Bloomberg Canada Fixed Income Conference that any credible projections point to a three or four year horizon, copper would face a structural deficit of five million to seven million tonnes. However, without copper, any energy conversion would not have been possible, he said. “At least a chart is being drawn up of the metals that will help decarbonise the world,”says Douglas. “You’re going to have to stimulate or allow a lot of extractive industries that are going to get the environmental red letter -- without it you can’t decarbonize the world.”As investors become more focused on the environmental credentials of metal producers, the ability to build mines in a world of extractive resource industries is becoming increasingly challenging, and social issues, including working with local communities, are also receiving attention. This has added to the industry’s challenges, including supply disruptions and rising raw material costs. “We certainly saw this in some commodities that rose and peaked earlier this year, such as timber, steel and iron ore, which later started to fall,”Daniella Dimitrov, Iamgold’s chief financial officer, told a panel. “Of course, this will show that the inflation we are seeing is supply-chain-driven, and disruption-driven,”said a spokesman for Iamgold, the toronto-based company that is trying to build a mine in northern Ontario. “We started construction in July 2020, and we certainly have seen some of the cost pressures we were talking about in terms of copper, steel and especially labor,”she said, the effect of ncv-19 on productivity leads to higher labour costs. “We certainly see this in the energy sector, not only in Canada, but also in our operations in South America and Africa.”Shipping has also been a problem, experienced by hardby himself. “There have been times when we have had to press people to honor contracts because global shipping costs have just soared,”said Douglas of Hardby, adding that he had heard that global shipping had tripled and quadrupled. Shipping delays have even affected the refurbishment of Hudbay’s Snow Lake Plant in Manitoba, Canada. “Procrastination costs money,”he said. “These delays are sure to put your job in jeopardy and add to the costs,”he said. 

Source: Global Mineral Resources, publisher: RLC666