“This is an era of unprecedented change, it’s really happening,” Friedland said. “The handwriting is on the wall. For those of you who deny this phenomenon, you’re going to miss this massive disruption opening soon at a theatre near you.”
“Air pollution isn’t just in China. It’s in Paris, Greece, Madrid and Mexico City,” he said. “In Beijing, the government is on an air pollution jihad. It’s engaging in the largest enterprise ever to clean the air, and they’re going to do it because China is a command economy.”
He noted an electric vehicle currently contains 150 kg of copper — or four times more than a conventional vehicle — and even more copper will be required to electrify developing countries, he said.
“We don’t have enough copper being discovered to meet future copper demand. We need much higher copper prices to stimulate the painful enterprise of exploration, development and production. We’re just getting on the edge of a very steep ski slope and looking down over the edge.” Lesley Stokes, The Northern Miner