CARL KRUGER: Here’s the thing about copper

I live in SA, a country riddled with crime. The crime I am most concerned with is copper cable theft. I have been marketing a cable maintenance system that includes an early warning theft device, to entities that control enormous quantities of above- and below-ground copper cables, including municipalities, rail transport utilities, mines, energy producers and factories.

All of them admit they have a cable theft problem, but precious few choose to do anything substantive about it. It dawned on me that these people know very little about this element called copper and what the future holds in store for their respective entities if they don’t deal with this dire situation timeously.

When it comes to protecting our copper resources there is no such a thing as worrying about it tomorrow. What will our children and our children’s children say when they are left in darkness and unable to convey electricity to homes and workplaces?

Here are some things they, and you, should know about copper and the role it plays in the economy. 

Copper is mined in various parts of the world, but the main producers are North and South America. Copper ore is mainly mined in quarry-type mines, by a drilling and blasting process. Large chunks of rock are crushed, usually on site, into golf ball-sized pieces, then transported in huge vehicles to the processing plants. At this point the rock contains less than 1% raw copper. 

Two processes are used extract the copper from the ore, dependent on the type of ore, to refine the copper to 99.99% purity. These are hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy. These processes yield about 50% of the world’s copper and the other 50% comes from recycled metal (which, incidentally, where stolen copper ends up).

Copper mining is a dangerous process, because to extract the pure copper from the copper ore (less than 1% copper) to get to 99.9% pure copper, results in many pollutants. These are dangerous to individuals and the environment.  Chemicals are used to leach the mineral out of ore, and exposed water is contaminated forever. 

The main uses of copper are currency, cooking pots, wiring, electronics and jewellery. But it is predicted that by 2035 the world will have moved towards an all-electric society. Almost everything we know today that runs on fuel will have disappeared and been replaced by electrical devices, cars being the obvious example. 

That sounds like an exciting world, except for one major problem: the world’s known copper reserves will only be able to meet 80% of forecast demand in 2035. That is a good few million tonnes of a copper supply shortfall. An expected doubling of demand for copper by 2035 will create unprecedented and untenable problems.

Even worse for countries such as SA is that the major copper-using countries will get preferential access to the copper reserves, mainly because they have the funds and are able to meet the demands of first-world consumers. 

To avoid disaster in 2035 — now only 12 years away — SA needs to protect its assets, including our copper resources. Most of SA’s copper mines will have closed by then, and our remaining reserves will not be able meet the country’s needs. Purchasing from other countries will be almost impossible. 

Copper needs to be regarded as a precious resource. It is now the most important metal, and we are already running short of it. Copper theft is aggravating the situation, and failing to deal with the scourge decisively means we will all pay the price.

We must at all costs protect copper that is vulnerable to theft, because if we fail to do so we may not have enough copper in future to replace stolen copper cables. Imagine what would happen if some people have electricity and others don’t, because their cable had been stolen and could not be replaced. 

We need to rebuild destroyed infrastructure, buildings, roads, transport and agricultural facilities while we have the copper to do so. People must lose the mindset of destruction. It is not normal to destroy what you struggled for. We must explore new mining opportunities, before all existing copper mines in SA slowly fade away. 

• Kruger markets an electronic early warning system for the prevention of copper cable theft.