Mineral intelligence
Copper mining assets in Africa
Copper is the metal the energy transition cannot proceed without, and every credible forecast shows demand outrunning committed supply.
STRATUM does not yet publish verified copper assets. Intelligence on this mineral is gathered continuously, and members are notified as assets clear verification.
What members see
Grades and assay results, resource and reserve estimates, evidence provenance, deal structure, infrastructure and power, and the geospatial layer. Identity of the operator is released only to compliance-cleared members on an approved request.
Copper mining: uses, market and Africa’s position
What copper is
Copper is mined from porphyry systems, from sediment hosted deposits, and from oxide caps that can be leached directly. Sulphide ores are concentrated by flotation and then smelted; oxide ores are leached and recovered by electrowinning, which is cheaper but only works on the weathered upper part of a deposit.
What copper is used for
Electrical transmission
Grid cabling and distribution, where copper's conductivity is bettered only by silver at many times the cost.
Electric vehicles
An EV uses several times the copper of a combustion car, in motors, wiring and charging infrastructure.
Renewable generation
Wind and solar installations are markedly more copper intensive per unit of capacity than thermal generation.
Construction and industry
Plumbing, roofing, motors and heat exchange, the steady base of demand underneath the transition story.
Copper market outlook
The copper problem is not geology but time. Grades at existing mines are declining, new discoveries are deeper and more remote, and the interval from discovery to production routinely exceeds a decade. That structural lag is why copper assets with defined resources attract attention well before they are ready to mine.
Copper in Africa
The Central African Copperbelt spanning Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the great copper provinces of the world, and typically carries cobalt alongside the copper. Exploration has also extended into Botswana and Namibia along the Kalahari Copperbelt.
What to check on a copper asset
For a copper asset, the decisive factors are grade, whether the mineralisation is oxide or sulphide, and the depth of the weathering profile. Then infrastructure: copper is bulk tonnage, so power availability and haulage distance to a smelter or a port can matter more to the economics than a modest difference in grade.