Why Mining Giant Rio Tinto Is Benefitting From The EV Boom

Copper mines, like this one in Utah, are on the frontline of America’s transition to clean energy. This site, owned and operated by mining giant Rio Tinto, produces roughly 200,000 metric tons of copper annually — with room to grow. Global demand for copper, a major component of EVs, is expected to almost double from 25 million metric tons to nearly 49 million metric tons by 2035. But miners face a multitude of issues as they ramp up production, not least of which includes mitigating environmental damage, addressing the concerns of the local stakeholders, and operating in remote regions of the world.

Based in the UK, Rio Tinto is one of the world’s largest mining companies with projects in 35 countries. In addition to its 17 iron ore mines in Western Australia that produce material used in steel, its products include aluminum, diamonds, and boron, a component in fertilizer and smartphones. Historically miners have been known for their environmental impact but today are increasingly recognized as crucial players in the transition to green energy. So what is Rio Tinto doing to ramp up production of its critical minerals business and how will China’s economic slowdown impact its iron ore sector? CNBC got a behind the scenes look at Rio Tinto’s Utah operation to find out.

Chapters:
0:00-3:02 Intro
3:02-6:25 Chapter 1 Kennecott
6:26-8:36 Chapter 2 History
8:37-10:58 Chapter 3 Mining challenges
10:59:13:30 Chapter 4 Automation in mining

Produced and Shot by: Shawn Baldwin
Edited by: Darren Geeter
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Additional Camera: Katie Brigham, Magdalena Petrova
Animations: Christina Locopo
Narrated by: Robert Ferris
Additional Footage: Getty Images, Rio Tinto

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Why Mining Giant Rio Tinto Is Benefitting From The EV Boom

[yrrr]

Increasing demand of copper is not a just result of EV boom, its a result of increasing electrification in everything. That includes energy transition, industrialization, semiconductors and electricity consumption in general. It is very wrong to say the EV boom is the only reason responsible for the increased demand of copper. The EV industry is still very far from driving up the copper prices alone.

[Danger_mouse]

BHP is also benefiting in a huge way.
They've bought all of the copper mines in South Australia and have many more already.

[justalilred]

It's clean energy "excavates a whole ecosystem"

[inodesnet]

The map at 2:06 misses the fact that Rio-Tinto is an Anglo-Australian company (only UK is highlighted), and has joint headquarters in London and Melbourne. It is the world’s second largest mining company behind BHP, which is also headquartered in Melbourne.

[DavidNelson]

I live just down the road from the Rio Tinto mine in Utah. Ironically they are one of the largest contributors to air and ground water pollution in the state. “green energy” my eye, you are just moving pollution somewhere else.

[michael-michaelmotorcycle]

My current boss is a former employee at the largest mine in the US. The Morenci mine in Az. He was a new infrastructure engineer for 13 years out there, started as an intern while in college. He is the most intelligent, well versed professional I have ever met.
He left the mine because of the harsh realities of living in the middle of nowhere as stated in the opening statements of this video.

[leadershiphelpdesk]

Wow, this is what "Green" looks like, I would never known.

[AdrianMcDaid]

Dear CNBC the UK is not the whole part island of Ireland as shown start your piece.

[joelcorley]

There are engineering solutions that can drastically reduce copper requirements. If copper costs enough for long enough, companies will change their designs. For instance, communications throughout a vehicle can be multiplexed onto a single pair of wires. Need more power transmitted on less copper? Increase the voltage. Hell, communications can actually be multiplexed onto power lines too! There are practical limits of course, but we are nowhere near them.

Even the issue of mining enough lithium is solvable. There is a lot of lithium available, but processing some of it is rather nasty and expensive. But there is a lot of R&D currenting working on sodium based batteries. Sodium has more free electrons in its outer valence, meaning one atom could theoretically store more power, offsetting it's higher mass by increasing energy density. Sodium is incredibly abundant and found in every drop of the ocean water. Switching to sodium could actually reduce cost and eliminate at least one of the mining bottlenecks in EV adoption.

[dustin]

It is weird that the US doesn’t have any domestic large scale mining companies. They’re all foreign owned operating in the US.

[AndyFahey]

RIO would never consider paying employees more to attract new talent. You need more workers, pay more.

[OZGuate]

There is a beautiful trail behind kennecott copper mine in Utah, you can drive the entire way, this takes you to the top of the mine and gives you an amazing view to this installation and also mesmerizing views over the wasatch mountain's and adjacent cities

[Quokka]

Rio Tinto is an Australian-British multinational corporation, not just British some of the best open cut mins in the world come form Australia

[blessingndlovu]

South African here, Rio Tinto has mining operations here as well. Damaging our prestine indigenous coastal environment. I thought it was an Australian company not British.

[Willy.Tanner]

Very good! Don't even mention the contamination factor, the humungus amount of clean water those mines use, that's not important at all, praising the company is the good journalism!
As a journalist myself I feel like puking right now.

[miningcommodities]

The mining area looks fantastic when filmed from a drone

[TheIrishman]

I’m sure it’s an oversight but, the UK does not include Ireland. But I’m sure you knew that….

[shumann]

Makes more sense to build new generation nuclear power plants instead of Solar or Wind Turbines.

[davewebster]

Kennecott is a massive industry in utah. My grampa was a welder for them (he once welded his supervisor into his truck when he decided to sleep in the cab while everyone was outside freezing). It's crazy to see its greater impact.

[femaledeer]

Why does the stock seem to go nowhere ?