COPPER

The foundation of electrification
Key Takeaways
  • Essential for Electrification – Copper powers grids, EVs, batteries, and renewables, with demand surging. 
  • Supply Challenge – Demand is set to double by 2035, but ore quality is declining, requiring new discoveries. 
  • Aileron’s Potential – A key under-explored region where iTech Minerals seeks new copper resources.

Why Copper?

As a superior conductor of electricity, copper is indispensable in everything from power grids to electric motors, batteries, and charging stations. As the world accelerates towards a high-tech, clean energy economy, copper is now a strategic resource dubbed “The next Oil” by Goldman Sachs.

The key challenge lies in finding and developing new ore bodies and more efficient ways to mine the more commonly available lower-grade ore.

The Copper Key

Copper has been used in wiring for 200 years, but today it is also used in everything from cables, motors, batteries, and electronic components, making it the cornerstone of electrification.

Copper’s unmatched conductivity makes it indispensable in power grids, electric vehicles, and renewable energy systems. Every wind turbine, solar panel, and EV battery depends on copper to function. In fact, electric vehicles require up to four times more copper than traditional cars, and with the global push for clean energy accelerating, demand is set to rise exponentially. Beyond its role in energy, copper is also crucial for construction, telecommunications, medical technology, and defense technology, as well as a wide range of other industrial applications.

Closing the Supply Gap

With global demand for copper rising rapidly, a global shortage looms. S&P Global forecasts that demand for copper will double to 50 million metric tons by 2035, with strongest demand from the US, China, Europe, and India. At a time when some of the world’s largest copper mines are seeing a drop in ore quality and high-grade copper discoveries have become rarer, the industry must innovate and ramp up exploration and investment to keep pace with demand.

Source: BHP

The Aileron Province: A Prime Target for Exploration

Located within the Paleoproterozoic North Australian Craton, the Aileron Province in Australia’s Northern Territory is a highly prospective region for copper exploration and home to iTech’s Reynolds Range Project. It hosts significant known copper deposits within a geological setting that is conducive to the formation of copper deposits.

Despite its proven mineral potential, vast areas of the Aileron Province remain under-explored, leaving room for significant discoveries.

iTech Minerals sees the potential for applying new exploration techniques to unlock previously overlooked deposits, further solidifying the region’s importance in the search for new copper resources.

iTech's Reynolds Range Project

Discovering a New Supply for New Demands

The Scimitar Cu-Au Prospect is a standout drill target that has all the signs of a potential large-scale mineralised system. With good access, coincident multi-element soil anomalies, high conductivity EM anomalies and outcropping mineralisation of up to 18% Cu, 3.3 g/t Au and 1,490 g/t Ag, the prospect will be the focus of the first drill program at Reynolds Range.

The iTech team will drill test the Scimitar Prospect in the first half of 2025.

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