Copper Supply Gap Widens as Data Centres Fuel Demand
The copper market is facing a structural challenge due to declining ore grades and underinvestment in new mines. The average grade of copper ore extracted globally has fallen from 1.6% in the early 2000s to below 0.6% at many operations today, requiring more rock to be moved and processed for the same amount of refined metal.
The International Energy Agency projects a copper supply gap of approximately 30% by 2035, which does not account for the explosive growth in AI infrastructure construction now reshaping demand forecasts. The rapid construction of data centres is driving up copper demand, with each facility requiring thousands of kilometres of internal cabling and hundreds of transformers.
Copper is embedded at every layer of a modern data centre, from grid connection to printed circuit board. A single hyperscale facility drawing 500 megawatts of power requires extensive copper infrastructure, including busbars, cables, transformers, and cooling systems.