2024-03-25 22:06:57
The price of the metal rose, but before
three years it reached $11,000, the highest value ever
Copper reached an impressive $9,000 per ton in early March. Then the price came back, but in the last two or three weeks on the stock exchanges, the quotations are around 8,500 dollars.
The market is quite dynamic, if the forecasts and analyzes were followed, last year the price should have been 14,000 dollars, but it fell below 8,000, commented the chairman of the Bulgarian Chamber of Mining and Geology, Dragomir Draganov, who is also the executive director of Elatsite-Med “.
I don’t expect any sudden jump,
we will be satisfied if the price
held within $9,000 per ton,
plus or minus $100 – $200, he reckons.
If you follow what is happening on the stock exchanges and stocks in the world, I don’t see any reasons that would lead to a deficit, and hence to sharp jumps in the price of copper, Draganov declares.
According to some forecasts of banks and investment institutions, the quotations for this year will be around 8,750 dollars, others believe that they will be around 9,000. Three years ago, they reached 11,000 dollars, which is the highest value so far.
But at the beginning of 2024, the price was 7,800 dollars, says Ivan Mitev – executive director of the Bulgarian Mining and Geological Chamber. Raising the price is not something that surprises us. This is logical, given that
90% of all technologies and techniques that
used in everyday life, are based on
honey products
It is no coincidence that it is among the strategic and critical raw materials in Europe, says Mitev.
However, this metal is not critical for Bulgaria. Our country ranks third in the production of copper concentrates in Europe and fourth in the production of electrolytic copper.
On average, the production of copper concentrate from the two largest deposits – “Elatsite-Med” and “Asarel-Medet” – is about 340,000 tons. Together with the extraction of gold-copper concentrate of “Dundee Precious Metals” from the deposits in Chelopech and Ada Tepe, they amount to between 450,000 and 500,000 tons. However, the gold-copper concentrate of “Dundee” is exported for processing in Namibia, and the copper of “Elacite-Med” and “Asarel-Medet” – to “Aurubis”. About 80,000 – 85,000 tons of copper are extracted from the copper concentrate, Draganov calculates.
If the price is kept around 8,500 dollars, the enterprises from the copper mining and processing industry in our country will have revenues of 722 million dollars. At a price of 9,000 dollars, the amount reaches 765 million.
Draganov predicts that this year will be better for the mining industry and it is a time for new investments and innovations in the sector.
Another issue is the study, which is set as a main task by the EC. Not only in our country, but also in Europe, the great wave of search and research was in the 1970s and 1980s, says Mitev. Therefore, the task now is to make surveys and maps of the deposits.
According to Draganov, it is not studied in our country because the regulatory framework is absurd. In order for a mineral prospecting and exploration company to start, it must purchase the land on which it will carry out these activities – the drilling sites, roads, etc.
not knowing if there will be
positive result
If he discovers deposits, he confronts non-governmental organizations. He gives the example of “Asarel”, which for years has not been able to start exploitation of a deposit. It is the same with all other enterprises, the chairman of the chamber points out. According to him, there are no such restrictive regimes in other countries.
For the last deposit to be developed – the gold of Ada tepe near Krumovgrad, the procedure took between 15 and 20 years together with the disagreement of the people. As it will run out in 2-3 years, Krumovgrad residents ask how the increased standard and quality of life will be maintained.
Because of the difficult and slow procedures, investors are looking at projects abroad. Draganov mentions “Minstroy” with the mines in North Macedonia, says that from “Dundee” they look at Serbia, “Asarel-Medet” also has projects outside the country.
.
Europe consumes 30% of critical
raw materials of the world, and produces 3%
Europe consumes 30% of the world’s extraction of critical and strategic raw materials, but only extracts 3% of them. This is the main problem on which the regulation for the raw materials in question focuses, points out Ivan Mitev. Currently, 34 elements have been designated by the European Union as critical raw materials of strategic importance and with a high supply risk.
Critical are antimony, arsenic, aluminum/bauxite, barite, beryllium, bismuth, boron, copper, feldspar, fluorite, gallium, germanium, hafnium, helium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, graphite, nickel, niobium, phosphates, scandium, silicon, strontium, tantalum, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium and osmium. Bismuth, boron, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, graphite, nickel, platinum group elements, rare earth elements, including neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, dysprosium, gadolinium, samarium and cerium, silicon are defined as strategic. , titanium and tungsten.
According to long-term scenarios, the demand for raw materials in Europe is expected to increase up to 6 times in 2030 and up to 15 times in 2050 in addition to the current consumption in the EU. Mitev has therefore proposed to collect information at the European level about the available resources and deposits and to develop exploration programs. Because now we were working with data from the 70s and 80s.