EV (Electric Vehicle) Copper Consumption Set to Drive Incremental Global Demand

December 10, 2019

Stefan Ioannou, Ph.D., is Analyst of Cormark Securities Inc. Dr. Ioannou is a mining engineer and holds a Ph.D. in economic geology from the University of Toronto.

He joined Cormark in December 2016, working in equity research for 13 years with Haywood Securities — base metals analyst since 2006. Prior to that, Dr. Ioannou worked as an exploration geologist in Nevada and throughout the Canadian Shield.

In this exclusive 2,882 word interview with the Wall Street Transcript, Dr. Ioannou reveals his insight into near term metal prices.

“One of the things that we’re hearing a lot more about is electric vehicles and what they mean for metal consumption in general, and obviously for copper.

When you think of copper, you should think of electrification. And so that obviously fits right into the electric vehicle narrative. Copper consumption, as it pertains to EVs, is definitely a new emerging demand.

But to put it in perspective, the numbers that are out there right now suggest that incremental EV-related copper demand over time is going to be on the order of about 2 million to 3 million tons per annum.

Current global copper consumption is around 23 million tons per annum, so incremental EV usage stands to boost overall demand by about 10%.”

Some top stocks will benefit from this economic trend:

“One name that comes to mind is Trilogy Metals. They have a project in Alaska called Arctic, which is an advanced-stage project, very high grade.

It will produce copper, zinc and lead, as well as precious metals. A key thing here is that the project is relatively remote, so it will require about a 340-kilometer-long road to access it.

Work with the government is already well-underway to get that road permitted, and we should be seeing a sightline to those permits by early next year. Once in hand, it’ll be a significant catalyst for the project going forward.”

Get the complete recommendation list in this exclusive 2,882 word interview, only in the Wall Street Transcript.