Codelco ditches green copper push
2019-10-18 15:14:50 [Print]
In 2017, Codelco announced a plan to sell "green copper" at a premium price to customers using more sustainable practices like renewable energy and recycled water to cut its carbon footprint.
The project has run aground however, Codelco insiders and an executive said, as the miner realized it would struggle to guarantee its copper's sustainability once it left the mine to be melted down and taken to market. Without that, traders said, higher prices were unjustifiable.
Now, Codelco stated that it would drop the "green copper" plan piloted in one of its smaller mines in favor of a broader initiative to make its product more sustainable.
The move by Codelco could, if successful, pave the way for more significant industry-wide sustainability standards for the historically high-polluting copper mining trade, analysts said.
Jorge Sanhueza, Codelco's newly minted chief of climate change and traceable copper, told that it would instead seek to ensure that all its production, upwards of 1.7 million tons a year, could be tracked and measured for sustainability within two years. "We have to get the deadlines approved by the board of directors but this is more ambitious than what we had before," said Sanhueza.
The project has run aground however, Codelco insiders and an executive said, as the miner realized it would struggle to guarantee its copper's sustainability once it left the mine to be melted down and taken to market. Without that, traders said, higher prices were unjustifiable.
Now, Codelco stated that it would drop the "green copper" plan piloted in one of its smaller mines in favor of a broader initiative to make its product more sustainable.
The move by Codelco could, if successful, pave the way for more significant industry-wide sustainability standards for the historically high-polluting copper mining trade, analysts said.
Jorge Sanhueza, Codelco's newly minted chief of climate change and traceable copper, told that it would instead seek to ensure that all its production, upwards of 1.7 million tons a year, could be tracked and measured for sustainability within two years. "We have to get the deadlines approved by the board of directors but this is more ambitious than what we had before," said Sanhueza.
Copper Conc. 20%min Delivered China
Unit:RMB/mt Cu
China copper concentrate producers' output statistics by province by month
Unit: mt
