So companies are looking to revitalize older mines.
Typically, it takes at least 10 years and as much as $5 billion to build a copper mine from scratch. Once companies raise capital there are other challenges. Local communities have opposed mining projects from Panama to Serbia.
A Reuters analysis of at least four shuttered copper mines in the process of being restarted shows their owners trying to open a speedier pathway to supply around 7 million metric tons of metal in the next five years, adding to 30 million tons of output expected by 2031.
Rehabilitating old mines “taps into investor sentiment that it is going to be easier, and it is easier,” said Daniel Bornstein, a partner at McCarthy Tetrault which has advised miners on rehabilitation.
One example: Selkirk First Nation in Canada’s Yukon Territory this year took over a mine in Yukon, Canada that was shuttered by Minto Metals last year. It had…
