America’s copper supplies are running out

Opinion

February 27, 2025

America's copper supplies are running out

From the wires powering our homes to the batteries propelling electric vehicles (EVs), an adequate supply of copper is indispensable.

Yet as demand surges — projected to double by 2035 to meet net-zero mandates if they are continued — the United States is running low on its vital copper supplies.

Our mines churn out 1.1 million metric tons annually, meeting 69% of domestic need.

However, aging operations and a labyrinth of red tape threaten to cede our copper crown to foreign powers.

Conservatives must champion a bold, pragmatic path forward — one that marries free-market vigor with national sovereignty — lest we squander this moment to secure America’s resource independence.

The stakes are stark.

Arizona’s Morenci Mine, a Freeport-McMoRan titan producing 399,100 metric tons in 2023, faces closure by 2051. Utah’s Kennecott, a Rio Tinto marvel yielding 169,300 tons, winds down by 2032.

Meanwhile, EVs — each guzzling 80 pounds of copper — drive demand skyward, as do wind turbines (5 tons per megawatt) and grid upgrades (1 million tons yearly by 2050).

A 2024 University of Michigan study warns that current output can’t sustain the Inflation Reduction Act’s 100% EV goal by 2035 without six new large mines annually — a pace throttled by permitting delays averaging 20 years. Imports, now 45% of supply, leave us vulnerable to Chile’s whims or China’s chokehold on refining.

This isn’t just an economic issue; it’s a matter of liberty.

Conservatives rightly distrust reliance on foreign regimes — especially those like China, which controls 50% of global copper refining and hoards rare earths vital to our tech edge. Every ton imported is a dollar diverted from American workers, a job lost, and a step toward strategic subservience.

Yet the left’s answer — endless regulations and green dogma — stifles the very industry poised to power their Utopian grid.

The Resolution Copper project, a $7 billion Arizona venture promising 25% of U.S. demand, languishes under lawsuits and bureaucratic quicksand, its fate tangled in debates over sacred Apache land and aquifer fears. This paralysis is liberalism’s gift: a nation rich in resources, poor in resolve.

But conservatives aren’t blameless. Too often, we’ve ceded the narrative, letting environmentalists cast mining as a villain rather than a virtue. It’s time to reclaim the high ground with a vision that’s uniquely ours — one that honors free enterprise, rewards ingenuity, and secures our future without bowing to collectivist shackles or globalist handouts.

What can we do?

First, unleash the market.

Streamline permitting to five years — max — via a “Copper Freedom Act.” Model it on the 1872 Mining Law’s spirit: incentivize extraction on federal lands with tax breaks scaling by output — say, 10% for 50,000 tons, 20% for 100,000. Pair this with liability shields for firms adopting water-efficient tech, like Florence Copper’s in-situ leaching, which slashes surface scars. Critics will cry “corporate welfare,” but this isn’t subsidy — it’s liberation from a government chokehold that’s cost us decades. The USGS pegs U.S. copper resources at 48 trillion tons; let’s tap them, not coddle them.

Second, double down on sovereignty. Subsidize domestic smelting — our three plants (two in Arizona, one in Utah) can’t match Chile’s scale, but a 25% tax credit for new facilities could spark a renaissance. Why export 320,000 tons of concentrate yearly, as we did in 2015, only to beg it back refined? Pair this with tariffs on copper from adversarial nations — 10% on China, 5% on Russia — offset by cuts for allies like Canada. This isn’t protectionism; it’s patriotism — keeping jobs in states such as Arizona, not in China’s outback.

Third, innovate boldly. Conservatives should lead on tech, not trail. Fund private R&D — $500 million yearly, matched by industry — for breakthroughs like microbial leaching, where bacteria extract copper from low-grade ores at half the water cost. Think Manhattan Project, but for mining: a public-private sprint to outpace rivals. Critics will balk at spending, but this isn’t pork — it’s seed money for a harvest of self-reliance. Florence’s projected 85 million pounds by 2026 proves the model; scale it nationwide.

Balance demands candor. Mining scars the earth — Kennecott’s 2.5-mile-wide pit and Chino’s 300-million-cubic-yard tailings dams attest to that. Water use, too, stings in arid states; Morenci gulps 50,000 acre-feet yearly amid drought. But the green lobby’s hypocrisy rankles: they decry copper’s footprint while demanding EVs and solar farms that guzzle it.

Reasoned compromise works — mandate 90% water recycling (Morenci’s already close) and tailings reuse for construction, as some firms do. Resolution’s foes raise valid cultural concerns, but a $1 billion trust for Apache heritage, funded by mine profits, could bridge divides without killing progress.

The left will howl — capitalist greed, they’ll say, trumps nature. Let them. Their alternative — importing copper from Peru’s lax mines or China’s coal-fired smelters — mocks their own creed. America’s miners, bound by stricter rules, can extract cleaner and smarter. Freeport’s net-zero-by-2050 pledge isn’t fluff; it’s a challenge we should meet with market muscle, not mandates.

The payoff is immense. Six new mines yearly could push output to 2 million tons by 2035, slashing imports to 20%. Jobs — 10,000 direct, 50,000 indirect — would bloom in red states, paying $60,000-$80,000 annually. Energy independence would surge; a revived smelting sector could anchor rural economies. And the U.S., not Xi Jinping, would dictate the copper game — vital when EVs and other industrial purposes hinge on our metal might.

Contrast this with the status quo: a 5-million-ton global deficit by 2035, per S&P Global, hobbling our climate goals and hiking prices to $6/pound in a trade spat. Mines shutter — the big copper mine in Bagdad, Arizona lasts to 2111, but without heirs, it’s a dead end. Communities like Morenci fade, and China smirks as we grovel. That’s not conservative; it’s capitulation.

Copper isn’t sexy — it’s not oil’s swagger or tech’s gleam — but it’s ours to wield. Conservatives must seize this moment, not with nostalgia for pickaxes, but with a fierce, forward tilt: markets unfettered, borders fortified, innovation unleashed. The red metal runs in America’s veins — let’s mine it like we mean it, for a nation that stands tall, not on crutches.

This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com