By Tamsin Brown • Published: 23 Jan 2022 • 9:45
The Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov believes a particular type of material to be “the new gold” and that demand will increase significantly in the future. The Russian magnate of Uzbek origin Alisher Usmanov has published an article on the website of the World Economic Forum as part of the Davos Agenda in which he reveals the material that is going to become “the new gold” due to increased global demand: copper. Usmanov believes that copper is “the metal of the future” and the “new gold”. According to this billionaire, there has been an imbalance between the offer and demand for copper on the market over the last few years. After many fluctuations, the price of copper stabilised between May and October 2021 at around 11,000 dollars per tonne. However, the price looks set to rise over the next few years, thanks to the “indispensable role” of copper in the low-carbon economy and industries such as telecommunications, electric vehicles, renewable energy systems and carbon capture and storage. The value of copper is also based on other factors. It is not easy to replace, with a substitution index of under 1%. It is predicted that the demand for copper will multiply by 2.7 by 2040. Mines are also reaching their maximum capacity. No new deposits have been found and “the lead time between discovery to production has increased significantly recently”. He added, however, that a world copper deficit can be avoided by investing in extraction and productivity projects and developing copper recycling technologies. Usmanov also highlighted that copper is a sustainable metal and it is “fundamental for decarbonising the global economy”. ________________________________________________________________________ Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
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Originally from London, Tamsin is based in Malaga and is a local reporter for the Euro Weekly News covering Spanish and international news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.
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