Maybe data is the new gold. Maybe it’s lithium. Either way, GoldCorp founder Rob McEwen is thinking about what’s next.
The McEwen Mining and McEwen Copper CEO has been chasing deals that would make his companies suppliers of EV battery metals. In October, Stellantis took a 19.4 per cent stake in the copper company at a valuation of about US$800 million.
The automaker’s investment of 42 billion Argentine pesos will help develop a project in San Juan, Argentina, and gives it the right to a minimum 10,000 tonnes per year of copper cathode offtake.
“I said, ‘Well, let’s talk to a number of automobile manufacturers, they’re going to be building electric cars,” he said, adding that he was surprised to find some automakers were adding geologists to their staff. “We just went after them and said, ‘Well, we can provide you cathode copper that doesn’t have to go to a smelter … we’re looking at a copper mine that is going to be much gentler on the environment.”
Many precious metal miners are flirting with the idea of expanding more into base metals, a category that includes metals like copper, nickel and aluminum. A former investment banker, McEwen is well known for striking early when he sees opportunities to capitalize on new technologies.
In 2000, he posted 50 years of Goldcorp’s geological data to the internet to crowdsource ideas to find the next six million ounces of gold—an unusual move, especially in the early aughts, and one that caught Silicon Valley’s attention. McEwen has donated money to stem-cell research and serves alongside the likes of Larry Page and Arianna Huffington on the board of XPrize, which issues challenges to innovators across several disciplines and rewards them with cash prizes.
As he pushes for a role in the EV transition, McEwen is again looking to tech for inspiration. Mining companies must keep pace with innovation, he said, or risk becoming like the taxi businesses eroded by Uber.
AI could make masses of historical mining data more useful, said McEwen, who has been studying how it is used in other industries, like movie production. In December, McEwen Copper added former Google executive Nicolas Darveau-Garneau to its board, hoping to tap his artificial-intelligence expertise.
Meanwhile, he has enlisted Canadian architect Jason McLennan, whom he called the “Steve Jobs of the green-living building space,” to help design living quarters for the Argentine copper mine as part of a push to make the mine more “regenerative.”
“We want to make an environment that’s safe and healthy and attractive, and people want to work there,” he said.
The design, built into the side of a mountain, calls for renewable energy and vegetable gardens that would use waste as fertilizer.
“We have to change the perception of mining,” he said, “There are not as many people going through schools of mining engineering and geology, so that’s … denying us the passion and the technology that comes with that.”
An ideological chasm still divides many in the mineral and mining industry and the movement to improve environment, social and governance standards. Canadian copper giant First Quantum faced criticisms from Greta Thunburg and saw persistent protests in Panama. The Chinese-owned Las Bambas copper facility in Peru has seen its own unrest.
Without commenting on any one company, McEwen said that he’s hoping innovations in responsible mining, like regenerative designs, spread across the industry.
“Modern civilization is based on a lot of what we dig out of the ground,” he said.
“Can mining do it in a way that is perceived as more responsible? Maybe, somewhere down the road, they could see it as a jewel rather than a blight.”
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