A leading North American mining entrepreneur, who wants to open his own US copper mine, has welcomed plans for a 50% tax on copper imports.
Robert Friedland, the billionaire founder of Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines and Ivanhoe Electric, told the BBC the tariffs would help re-establish the US copper mining industry.
US President Donald Trump has already introduced steel and aluminium tariffs and a 50% copper tariff is due to come in on 1 August.
Critics have argued that tariffs are inflationary and will push up prices for American consumers, but Mr Friedland said the president’s approach was aimed at strengthening national security by building important industries at home.
Copper is an essential metal for the modern global economy and green technology in particular. It is used in everything from buildings and power grids to electric vehicles and data centres.
“The new administration in the United States is correctly focused on making sure that the world’s largest economy actually has stable access to raw materials at the scale of that economy, rather than being dependent on far-flung and potentially unstable jurisdictions,” he said.
Last year, the US imported about 50% of the copper it used. The biggest sources were Mexico, Chile and Canada – which has hit out at the move.
“We’ll fight against it – period,” said Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly.
When Trump announced the tariffs on social media earlier this month, he said they would allow the US to “once again, build a dominant copper industry”.
Global demand is soaring thanks to growing industrialisation and the surge of new technologies that rely on electricity.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is warning that without more mining, global copper demand will be 30% higher than supply by 2035 as demand from China and India continues to soar.
US demand spurred by the impending tariffs has pushed the price of copper to record highs – a trend that Mr Friedland warns will only increase due to the metal’s scarcity.
However, those higher prices risk broader economic damage such as delays in construction projects, according to Ewa Manthey, who is a commodities strategist at the Dutch bank ING.
“Copper is a foundational input in everything from electronics to manufacturing and construction. When prices rise, so do production costs which can feed into broader inflation,” Ms Manthey said.
She pointed out that pressure came as the US central bank was already resisting Trump’s calls to cut interest rates amid its ongoing struggles to get inflation back to its 2% target.
