Rio was investing more capital in developing lithium and other battery metals, and was turning to waste from defunct mines to recover the minerals, Kaufman said. The world’s second-biggest miner also wanted to grow its copper business beyond planned projects in Mongolia and the US, she added.
Customers were demanding environmentally sound mining practices, forcing miners to decarbonize their operations, Kaufman said.
“We’ve got to decarbonize our own business, because producing material for the green transition can’t be done the way it was done previously,” she said.
(By James Fernyhough)
