[ti:Copper Producers Hope for 'Urban Mine']
[al:As It Is]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-06-12]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Manufacturers have been reusing and recycling copper for many years.
[00:08.43]Now they are increasing their efforts because some experts predict that the need for the metal will nearly double by 2035.
[00:20.03]The demand for copper might partly come from a move away from fossil fuels.
[00:27.54]There is a movement to power buildings, vehicles and manufacturing operations with clean electricity.
[00:37.05]Some people hope to "electrify everything." 
[00:40.73]But doing so would require more copper.
[00:45.62]The other half of the reported increased demand comes from constructing buildings and making cell phones and data centers.
[00:57.08]In an industrial area near Montreal, there is a factory owned by the French company Nexans that recycles copper.
[01:04.31]Nexans is one of the world's largest wire and cable manufacturers.
[01:12.75]In the factory, sheets of copper move along a special product mover four stories above the floor of the factory. 
[01:24.28]The sheets then drop into a hot furnace.
[01:28.49]Next come pieces of copper wire.
[01:31.67]Out of the furnace comes liquid copper. 
[01:36.17]It travels to a second furnace and from there, melted copper flows out.
[01:42.96]The liquid is then shaped into long, thin pieces called rods. 
[01:49.14]These are the raw materials for copper wire.
[01:53.47]The Nexans mill has made copper rod from rock, called ore, for nearly one hundred years. 
[02:02.54]Now it processes an increasing amount of used copper.
[02:08.04]Fourteen percent of some of the rods are recycled metal. 
[02:13.50]The company hopes to increase that to 20 percent.
[02:18.63]"We say to our customers: Your waste of today, your scrap of today is your energy of tomorrow, so bring back your scrap," said Nexans chief Christopher Guérin.
[02:32.94]Every ton of copper that is recycled means that up to 200 tons of ore will not need to be mined.
[02:42.92]That is important because mining can harm the environment, causing pollution in the soil, water or air. 
[02:52.47]Copper is an especially good candidate for reuse, because it can be recycled endlessly without losing its value or performance, Guérin said.
[03:05.58]Each day, up to 10 trucks drop off wire, cable and copper scrap at the Nexans mill. 
[03:14.60]Nexans uses more than 2,600 times the weight of New York City's Statue of Liberty in copper each year.
[03:26.12]Some of the materials come from customers, some from scrap dealers.
[03:32.46]The purity must be high if it is to be used to carry electricity.
[03:39.37]Daniel Yergin is with the financial information company S&P Global.
[03:45.77]He said people may have a closer connection to this metal and this mill than they realize. 
[03:53.64]Copper connects people to the world, Yergin said.
[03:58.21]"We depend on electricity for everything now," he said.
[04:02.91]"None of it works without copper."
[04:05.66]Aluminum is also used for electrical wiring in some cases.
[04:11.32]But it takes a lot of energy to produce.
[04:15.18]Some aluminum factories, where machines separate metal from ore, have cut production or closed because electricity prices are so high. 
[04:27.15]These cuts and closures have added to the demand for copper.
[04:32.66]The International Copper Association (ICA) says about two-thirds of all the copper produced in the last 100 years is still in use.
[04:46.26]It is used in electrical systems, communications and home appliances.
[04:52.25]When equipment and machines get past their useful life, they represent a large supply that can be recycled in the future, the trade group said.
[05:04.09]Colin Williams of the USGS Mineral Resources Program said companies should recycle more of the copper that is already out there. 
[05:15.97]By recycling, companies can make use of what is, effectively, an "urban mine."
[05:23.13]"It increases the supply available," Williams said.
[05:27.97]He added that recycling "...reduces the energy and environmental impacts associated with new mining by being able to reuse material we've already mined. It's an important step."
[05:43.68]I'm John Russell.