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Today we’re diving into one of the most in-demand minerals for the energy transition and exploring how new technology is hoping to serve excess demand. Let’s dive in.

Coppers and Robbers

It might not be obvious, but a lot of our day to day lives rely on copper. Sure it’s not as fancy as gold but all of our tech relies on it from wires to batteries. If you want that new Apple VR headset, you better be sure copper ain’t getting in the way.

With the green energy transition in progress, it’s expected that demand for copper is going to double by 2050. A McKinsey report found by 2030, there will be 30% more demand for copper than available supply.

We better get to mining then right?

You see, the thing with just digging up more copper is, it’s not a great solution. It’s a highly pollutant process, disturbs the environment, and perhaps most importantly it’s very expensive.

Enter Ceibo.

They’re looking to tackle this problem head on with a fresh round of $30m of Series B funding.

Ceibo said #ThrowbackThursday and is using a ~1,000 year-old process called heap leaching. This is supposed to help existing copper mines get the most out of their existing processes. You see, when a process has been around for so long, you learn a thing or two about it.

The heap leaching process looks a little like this:

1. Stack copper ore, ideally low-grade that might have gone to waste otherwise

2. Cover with proprietary leaching solution, an optimised liquid that maximises copper extraction

3. Collect liquid and remove copper from it through extraction process.

While the method has been around a long time, Ceibo’s efforts are still early in commercialising and rolling the technology out to mines. They claim they can recover up to 80% of copper ore that would have otherwise gone to waste.

Ceibo has already successfully extracted copper from a mine in Chile and the new round of funding is expected to help them take the technology to scale. If we have any hope of getting to the green future we all want to see, we’re going to need a hell of a lot more copper, let’s Ceibo can play it’s part.

Until next time,

The Strawman

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