Author of the article:Naimul Karim
Published Sep 22, 2023
Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm says he wants the mining giant to invest more in Canada.
Jakob Stausholm:
"Climate change is at the heart of everything we do. For two reasons. First of all, we have to admit that we have a significant carbon footprint and we have to address that. We have set in place a very challenging task of reducing our carbon footprint, our scope 1 and 2 emissions, by 50 per cent by 2030. We did that because that’s the best we can do.
To have a long-term future, you need to have a good long-term licence.
We also do it because the other side has a massive opportunity for Rio Tinto, because addressing climate change for the world is about building a whole new energy source. It’s about electrifying society, it’s about building renewable energy. It will require more aluminum, more copper and more battery materials plus a number of other critical minerals. It’s a huge opportunity for us. We cannot credibly pursue that unless we have pursued the decarbonization of our own business.
And from that step, Canada is an amazing opportunity for a couple of reasons. Canada is, if you think about it, a decade or two ahead of other western societies when it comes to addressing climate change because you have historically got a significant amount of renewable energy, primarily your hydro power. You have a very, very high content of green energy in your electricity. You also still have a lot of fossil fuels, but significantly less than other western countries. That’s interesting for us.
Some people are getting very excited about a number of smaller critical minerals, but we just have to remind ourselves that the global aluminum market today is 98 million tonnes, the copper market is 32 million tonnes, lithium is only 0.8 million tonnes. What I am trying to say is, yes, the smaller materials are interesting, but don’t forget, things cannot progress without growth in aluminum and copper. We are trying to commit to that.
I think it’s a societal choice. And I think the choice is different in Canada and in the U.S. Canada has a proactive industry policy towards mining. The U.S. with the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) is incentivizing a number of investments, but the fact is the U.S. has not permitted a hard-rock mine since 2008. That actually makes a big difference between the U.S. and Canada. I would argue that Canada is not just very resourceful, there is a lot of good development happening. But not just on the mining side. There is processing as well. It’s post-mining. You can see our footprint in Canada is very much post-mining and processing. Processing is an important part of society. Because, ultimately, you can’t use what comes out of a mine; you can only use the final materials.
Look, the starting point is that we would like to invest more in Canada.
Now, I am actually very optimistic. I would say there is no place on the planet that I get more optimistic about than Canada. Our chief scientist is based in Montreal. He keeps on looking at all sorts of different technologies and we are learning by the day."