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
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Near the end the narrator said these companies are gearing up for the upcoming EV boom..
Are you sure about that? It appears that American consumers are rejecting EVs. Dealers can no longer sell them. They are stacking up on lots and dealerships are canceling orders left and right. American EV manufacturers are canceling lines like the Ford lightning pickup truck.
Everybody's finally realized that electric vehicles do not have any kind of useful range to them and there's so many more problems and pitfalls associated with them.
In the last year it would appear that Americans are starting to reject electric vehicles so I wouldn't go out on a limb and say there's going to be an electric vehicle boom anytime soon. It seems more like it's going to be an electric vehicle bust..
If electric vehicles were viable and they worked you wouldn't need governments pouring trillions of dollars of subsidies into it. The capitalistic market would automatically bring them to fruition. It isn't going to happen because it doesn't work. At least not at this time with current technology.
I don't care what the dictator of California Gavin newsom says about no more gas vehicles after 2035. I guarantee you I bet you a million dollars said in 2035 they will still have to sell gas vehicles in California.
If only the general public could wake up and join the dots and realise their eco EV aspirations are based on all this dirty environmental production. Nobody saves the world or improves the Climate for driving an electric vehicle. It’s all about market control and sales…
how is this any way benefiting the environment?😂
“Eva are better for the environment” – democrats. Lol it’s so much worse
So do y'all not consider this a form of extortion you rotate development at such rotation depths and then other stuff starts spreading out against it s constructive value of growth and then you business over into it I thought that was like industrial espionage because you start showing rotation damages to other people's stuff I thought that's why we had sitting development Congress I guess we don't have a very good Congress doing they didn't want to implement everything together at one time they didn't have control of all of it you think they got control of all of it now and rotations to their families and their needs against our states
Hey arsenal Radford Virginia do y'all not think y'all should have had information from Congress about some of this stuff
I hit setting are showing you that billions of dollars do you think we lost out here in our state or blue ones between us and West Virginia
Technically where y'all design the rotation of 401k administration or correspondence family to family or y'all starting to be able to lease against the collaborations of stuff because of the year's balance of like 4060 and 100 probably end up bringing the rotation of our militaries involved because of funding's not add enough correctly to the rotation of your workers or everybody's workers
To me it looks like most everybody is in some of these bigger things Y'all cells responses or contracted between the different spreads so administrations always seeing money and always seeing leasing rotations instead of being able to like production bonus with sales down to your employment so more than likely if that would have been correct you might not have had as big a deal out of it but looking at it you're going to have a big deal out of because of that response rotation development
Why not use the country you're in
Could have helped you a lot more but I had a bunch of imbalance thieves who present rotations of privacy shields that blocked the constituent group of the independency of the individual
I mean one of my main goals is to be able to put the rotation weight back and try to figure out the in between spreads of some of these other ones to make sure they're growth is coming back and not being taken out and being atmosphere against them
Every electric motor needs copper
nice scenery
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.
It's clean energy "excavates a whole ecosystem"
Ai powered Minecraft would be really useful right about now
I love how CNBC whitewashes this absolute parasite of a company.
Those massive tractors & scoopers do that 150 million tons of earth moving at that 1 mine. All to just get a tiny percentage of the copper the electric transition needs.
That is millions of gallons of diesel people.
Then think how much coal or nat gas is needed to process & smelt that earth to make a ton of copper.
Add that up. Your green transition is not green at all.
Rio tinto is an Australian British company..
why? batteries
And here we go, the ironic part of going green is that its not really about preserving resources or considering further environmental damage. Instead its replacing a natural resource with a different natural resource. Its not sustainable, its a temporary solution thats not even a real solution just a different kind that will make the person behind this business wealthy or wealthier.
the climate scam!!!
RIO would never consider paying employees more to attract new talent. You need more workers, pay more.
Big enough to see from spacec😂
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
Do you know asteroid mining.how
Oh the electric vehicle business is so green 😂
Wait until all these environmentalists find out that all these green companies are subsidiaries from oil companies 😂
So driving an electric car is just a false sense of feeling that you're doing something good for the environment but in hindsight you are doing the same damage to the earth..
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.
Is this an add?
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.
EV is not clean energy – let's get one thing clear .
The Spanish name of Rio Tinto Company born in south Spain in the original mine Rio Tinto in Huelva/ Andalusia
Be nice if some good jobs come out of the mines.
Why are we allowing non us companies mine our land?
The laborers are guaranteed to have lung and respiratory problems.
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.
Looks so clean. Much cleaner than a small drill hole for oil in the ground. I don’t remember seeing a well hole from space. 😅
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Ancillary companies like Tega industries which provides liners in copper refinery will grow tremendously thanks to EVs without any risks which will be taken by mining companies like facing government and environment regulations, ire of local population and environmental activists.
This is what they call protecting the earth through EVs. 😅
What rise, rio tinto has been always this big for way too long, i dare say its kinda stagnant growth, their stock goes up as economy boom and crash when not. Same old same old.
Rio Tinto's Kennecott copper mine in Utah, the second largest copper mine in the US, produces around 200,000 metric tons of copper annually. Global demand for copper is expected to almost double by 2035, as copper is a major component of electric vehicles. However, the mining industry faces environmental challenges and concerns from local stakeholders while operating in remote locations. As a crucial player in the transition to green energy, Rio Tinto invested more than $2bn to modernise the Kennecott mine and facilities and is trying to open an underground copper mine 60 miles east of Phoenix. Rio Tinto is one of the world's largest mining companies with projects in 35 countries, producing materials such as iron ore, aluminum, diamonds, boron, and copper. Renewable power systems such as wind and solar are at least five times more copper intensive than conventional power, and to meet that demand, Rio Tinto is ramping up production of its critical minerals business. The company is hoping to increase its copper production by 30 to 40% over the next five years and potentially build one of the top ten copper mines in the world.
How can such a progressive media company air, basically, an ad for a company that does so much environmental damage? The only thing impressive about this story is the hypocrisy on display. How much CO² is being pumped out by those monster machines digging it up? What's next, a tour of the open pit coal mines that make up 20% of the US's electricity production? Or maybe an ad selling the benefits of the chemicals used in fracking for natural gas that makes up 40% of the nation's electricity? Please…
Green washing propaganda