The term one wanted to hear over and over again at a press conference where the Minister of Minerals, Green Technology and Energy Resources, Lefoko Moagi, announced the sale of BCL mine was “electric vehicle, electric vehicle, electric vehicle.” Why? Its emphasis would have begun to illuminate why a Canadian company called Premium Nickel Resources (PMR) is pumping P4 billion into what Nasdaq, a United States publication, has described as a “troubled state-owned mine.”
However, a Canadian publication came close to making such illumination when it stated that “what the sale may reflect is an opportune moment for a Canadian miner to take advantage of high commodity prices and a particular focus on copper and nickel in the modern green economy.” In one respect, the high commodity prices are the result of an electric-vehicle revolution that is only just beginning. On account of such revolution, shares in Tesla, a US-based electric-vehicle maker, rocketed by more than 720 percent in 2020 and helped make company owner, Elon Musk, the richest person in the world.
The electric-car revolution will, in no small part, be helped by green-economy legislation that is being adopted around the world. Internal-combustion engines are not environmentally friendly and are hastening a climate-change catastrophe that threatens the very survival of humanity. In the US, which is one of the largest polluters, the transportation sector is now the largest source of carbon-dioxide emissions. Resultantly, some countries are transitioning to electric vehicles because they produce 54 percent less carbon dioxide emissions per mile than a conventional vehicle. In order to facilitate this transition, some countries are introducing legislation and incentives that will be ensure compliance.
Germany has unveiled a €130 billion recovery budget, which specifically includes subsidies for buyers of battery powered vehicles while no funds were allocated towards combustion engine vehicles. Norway plans to remove traditional gasoline powered vehicles from the road by 2025, Israel by 2030 and China by 2035. The United Kingdom government has set targets for the take-up of low emission vehicles. At least 50 percent — and as many as 70 percent — of new car sales should be ultra-low emission by 2030, alongside up to 40 percent of new vans. The country will end the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040.
Already the market is responding very well to the electric vehicle – which is why Tesla’s stock did that well in the middle of a pandemic that brought economic ruin to much of the world. For each of the past 10 years, sales of electric and hybrid vehicles in the US, Europe and China have increased. Electric vehicles accounted for 1.3 percent of total vehicles sold in the US in 2017 and by third quarter 2018, had nearly doubled to 2.5 percent and hit 3 percent by the fourth quarter. In the US again, companies like IKEA, HP and Unilever have promised to ramp up integration of electric vehicles into their corporate fleets and to assist employees in transitioning to cleaner transportation.
It is just a matter of time before what happens in the Global North spreads to the Global South – the new nickname for what westerners used to call the “Third World.” That means that it is just a matter of time before the use of electric vehicles is adopted globally. When that happens, BCL, the copper-nickel mine in Selebi Phikwe, will see a dramatic demand surge because copper is the most ideal metal to build the “heart and veins” of electric vehicles.
There are no viable alternatives to copper on account of its high electrical conductivity, durability and malleability, cost effectiveness and other favourable characteristics. Resultantly, it has become the cornerstone of the electric vehicle revolution. These vehicles can use up to three and a half times as much copper when compared to an internal combustion engine passenger car – the amount goes up as the size of the vehicle increases; copper is used in every major electric vehicle component, from the motor to the inverter and the electrical wiring; a fully electric vehicle can use up to a mile of copper wiring; and, with a supercharger, an electric vehicles can reach 80 percent of its full charge in as little as 20 minutes – there superchargers rely on copper to be as electrically efficient as possible.
Electric vehicle technology will also require copper-intensive charging infrastructure, namely “charging stations”, being facilities and equipment that connect vehicles to the electric grid. Charging stations can be roughly classified as three types: Level 1 (120 Volts), Level 2 (220 volts) and DC Fast Chargers (DCFC). Recharging times range from overnight for Levels 1 and 2, to several hours for Level 2, to less than an hour for DCFC. The number of charging stations increase proportionally to the number of electric vehicles on the road and in the US alone, about five million charging stations will be needed to support the seven million electric vehicles that are expected to be on the road by 2025. The US’ Institute for Electric Innovation says that about five million charging stations will be required to support seven million electric vehicles in that year. This represents a significant increase in copper usage. It is estimated that by 2030, over 20 million electric vehicles charging stations will be deployed globally, consuming over 250 percent more copper than 2019.
In summary, BCL is not a “troubled state-owned mine” as Nasdaq imagines; it is a gold mine that is about to make the shareholders of PMR fabulously wealthy. Moagi revealed that PNR is negotiating a separate deal to buy another mine owned by the BCL Group – Tati Nickel Mine in Francistown. The re-opening of the copper mine will bring to life a town (Selebi Phikwe) that has been on its deathbed for five years now.
