Copper use is set to double within the next 20 years – forcing a rethink of just how deep miners will need to go, and how, for the precious red metal.

International Copper Association Australia chief executive John Fennell, addressing the Copper To The World Conference in Adelaide, said most of the world’s largest operating mines were more than 75 years old.

“In addition, ore levels keep dropping. However, demand keeps rising,” he said.

Mr Fennell said copper use was expected to hit 26 million tonnes a year by 2040, double what it is today.

“That means miners will need to get more from less, or, send them searching much deeper than they have ever gone before and in riskier, hard-to-access areas,” he said. 

Mr Fennell said technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Virtual or Augmented Reality, intelligent software, robotic machinery and vast armies of advanced sensors would be essential to produce safer, greener copper with minimal impact on people and the environment.

“Getting copper out and up from to one or two kilometres underground would have been science fiction once,” Mr Fennell said.

”But running a completely automated mine with intelligent machines and haulage from an urban centre is now possible.

“Processing all the ore underground is also closer using new catalytic refining methods and automated sorting, with clean energy powered systems taking the ore to the surface for intelligent transport.

“The copper mines of the future will rely on terabytes of data streamed from Internet of Things-backed sensors to manage, monitor and make the ore. 

“The mine workforce will also shift from more male and fly-in/fly-out practices to a more diverse urban-based personnel pool more attuned to technology.

“The World Economic Forum has already forecast that digitalisation will boost mine health and safety, saving an estimated 1000 lives and avoiding more than 44,000 injuries over 10 years.”

Mr Fennell warned delegates at the Copper to the World forum that the roll- out of copper mining technology had not been, however, as rapid or widespread as first predicted.

“There have been some big wins in intelligent transport, automised software systems and clean energy, particularly by big miners with deep pockets,” he said.

“However, we need to ensure sure technology is identified, tested and implemented as widely as possible.”