Economics, Resources, Environment and Technology As Driving Forces in the Base Metals Industry

Economics, Resources, Environment and Technology are the major driving forces in the base metals industry. However, these factors are intertwined and together will propel the industry in the future. The demand for metals has grown with economic expansion, between 2 to 4 % p.a. The current growth cycle has been driven by economic expansion in China where the demand for base metals has risen from - 7 % of the world demand in the 90's to - 25 % of world demand today, and rising. Base metals are commodities and their demand and price are cyclical. Historically metal prices have declined in constant dollars, forcing the industry to reduce costs, increase productivity and increase the scale of operation for economies of scale. Due to resource depletion and capacity expansion the industry is driven to expand its reserve and resource base. However, in the case of sulphide deposits of copper and nickel it appears to be a losing battle. For nickel the laterites represent a vast source at this time. Their development requires development of new technologies to make these resources economic. Emission reduction is being increasingly mandated in most jurisdictions with all governments enacting progressively more stringent regulations. The industry has been responding with technological innovation. With the Kyoto protocol there is a push to reduce energy intensity in metal production. Technological innovation is driven by all the other factors and is leading to novel ways of doing exploration, mining and processing, that would maximize resource delineation and utilization, reduce costs, increase productivity, reduce energy consumption, maximize asset utilization and reduce environmental affects. Development of alternative technologies such as Pressure Acid Leach of laterite for nickel, bio-leaching, heap leaching, SX-EW etc are being adopted to achieve the aims of the industry.