**Santiago**: The 2025 World Copper Summit convened industry giants to address the need for cooperative business models amid rising copper demand and geopolitical challenges. CEOs from major firms underscored strategies to enhance collaboration, production, and socio-environmental standards to meet future copper requirements.
During the 2025 World Copper Summit held in Santiago, Chile, industry leaders from major copper-producing companies gathered to discuss the evolving challenges in the copper sector and the need for new cooperative business models. The summit, which took place on Tuesday and was hosted by CRU, featured several prominent figures, including the CEOs of BHP, Codelco, Rio Tinto, Freeport McMoRan, and Antofagasta Minerals.
The discussions centred around the significance of adopting resilience strategies amidst an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment, which is marked by heightened energy security concerns and a diminishing availability of copper. Paul Mitchell, the global mining and metals sector leader at EY, underscored the urgent need for new mining operations, stating, “If forecast copper demand reaches over 50Mt per year, we need a new mine the size of [Chile’s] Escondida every two years.”
As the demand for copper is projected to continue its upward trend, supply chain adjustments are becoming more prevalent. The shift in mining strategies from competition to collaboration reflects the industry’s response to technological, economic, and operational hurdles. Executives noted that while past priorities focused on efficiency and cost minimisation, current objectives are oriented towards cooperation that enhances production while adhering to high socio-environmental standards.
Antofagasta CEO Iván Arriagada remarked, “Some of the projections talk about between 4Mt and 7Mt of extra copper being required by 2035. So, collaboration is evolving. We’re all looking for ways to reduce capital intensity, improve costs, and speed the time to get product to market.”
The summit highlighted the necessity of extending collaboration beyond just industry peers, encompassing governments, communities, academia, and technology suppliers. Rio Tinto’s CEO, Katie Jackson, articulated the importance of partnerships in their business strategy, noting, “Which has given us the confidence to make more investments and implement additional infrastructure to recover from waste or produce more. Collaboration is a way to share technology, but also risks.”
The event also brought to light the geopolitical landscapes influencing the copper market, particularly the fragmentation stemming from economic policies, such as those enacted during the Trump administration. However, the CEOs collectively emphasised the essential role of Chile in the global copper supply chain. Kathleen Quirk, CEO of Freeport, commented, “Chile has been supplying the world with copper including the US for many years, so it’s important that all of us not get caught up in this trade war and think more about our allies and think more about how we as an industry can supply what the world needs and do it with fair and free trade.”
The collaborative approach adopted by these industry leaders is reflective of the growing recognition of the complex challenges facing the mining sector, particularly in light of evolving global demands and socio-political climates.
Source: Noah Wire Services
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