00:00You just came from Washington, did participate in that launch of Project Vault.
00:04What do you think this $12 billion stockpile will mean for the mining industry,
00:08not just in Africa, but more broadly?
00:10It's very good news for the mining industry, Jennifer,
00:13because this is the beginning of a scaled vault to attract critical raw materials
00:19for the non-military side of the U.S. economy,
00:23so that major companies that are trying to build data centers or electrify the economy
00:28or build things or industrialize the country have access to critical raw materials.
00:33So it's part of the general understanding that we can't build a better, more modern world
00:39without the same materials that are being mined here in Africa.
00:42Well, and that just leads me to your companies and some of the mining sites you have.
00:46Do you expect, or how do you expect your companies to be involved in this project?
00:52We're going to help fill that vault.
00:53The mining industry is very happy that the United States government,
00:57led by U.S. Ex-Im Bank and other arms of the United States government,
01:02recognize the need, and that $12 billion, which is roughly $2 billion of equity
01:07and $10 billion of long-term financing from Ex-Im Bank, is scalable.
01:12And so it's really a very interesting scheme because it's market-driven.
01:17General Motors, Mary Barra was there.
01:20She's the CEO. If she needs a particular metal, she can go to the vault,
01:24and the vault will go out and find it.
01:26So it's driven by market forces, and there's no reason why it can't be $48 billion
01:31or $72 billion and keep growing.
01:34And that's very good for the people that are here at Indaba.
01:37How does that factor into supply disruptions that yourself and others experience,
01:43let's say perhaps in the DRC mine and other mines that you work with?
01:47How do you factor in some of those supply disruptions if you want to expand this vault over time?
01:51Well, our job is to reduce those supply disruptions
01:54because we've gone from a perfectly integrated, just-in-time world economy
01:59to an economy that's balkanizing.
02:02It's breaking into little groups,
02:04and that creates a real problem for critical raw materials.
02:08It creates friction in the world economy.
02:11It's inherently inflationary, and illogical though it may be,
02:16each nation is worried about their own supply chain
02:19because everything you touch, we either grew it agriculturally or we mined it.
02:25And lately, those metals that we mine are absolutely critical to the world economy,
02:31and that's why they're called critical raw materials.
02:34Right. Are you on track with some of your mines?
02:36Let's talk in the DRC in particular.
02:38Are you back on track after some of those disruptions?
02:41Sure. We're still producing.
02:43We're one of the biggest copper mines in the world.
02:45We have enormous prospects for continued expansion.
02:50We've built the only modern copper smelter on this continent.
02:53It's the greenest copper smelter that's ever been built.
02:57It's a direct-to-blister smelter.
02:59It's very advanced technology.
03:01It's better than any smelter in the United States of America.
03:05We have hydroelectric power.
03:07We have very high-grade copper in the Congo.
03:09So the Congo will be a world leader.
03:11Currently, Congo's number two in the world,
03:14coming up, up, up in the world ranking to Chile.
03:17But yesterday, Louis Wattem, who's a brilliant minister of mines
03:22for the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
03:24warned the Chileans that Congo's coming for the Chileans
03:28to be the number one copper producer in the world.
03:31The rate of growth of copper production in the Congo
03:34is by far the fastest in the world.
03:37So that's very achievable.
03:38Do you think the market then has caught up
03:40to the supply dynamics right now?
03:43Or do you expect potentially we see prices go higher,
03:46in particular for copper?
03:48I don't worry about prices.
03:50They will definitely fluctuate.
03:52That's the only thing we know about metals.
03:54But copper has a very bright future
03:56with 8 billion people on the planet,
03:59everybody wanting green, sustainable power,
04:02data centers, lots of national security-related demand,
04:06lots of electrification demand,
04:08almost everything you touch, including these cameras
04:10and lights that are enabling us to broadcast this
04:14to the whole world.
04:15We go to Bloomberg World Headquarters.
04:18It's copper, copper, copper, copper, copper,
04:20very high-tech.
04:21So most of the old, known mines
04:24are gradually declining in grade.
04:27Most of the easy mines of the world
04:29have already been found.
04:31But there's tremendous exploration potential,
04:33in particular on the African continent,
04:36to supply world demand.
04:37Is the capital there, though?
04:39Why is capital still sitting on the sidelines?
04:41What's needed?
04:42There's plenty of capital.
04:43We've raised close to 50 billion United States dollars
04:47for mineral development.
04:48We've reached a strategic investor agreement with Qatar,
04:53which is, they have plenty of capital.
04:55Right.
04:55The Saudis are also interested in this.
04:58There's lots of developing countries
05:00that are providing capital.
05:01A very good project today,
05:04if it's high-grade,
05:05it can be developed in a responsible way,
05:07has no trouble at all attracting capital.
05:10What is the risk, though,
05:11to your bullish outlook,
05:12not just on copper,
05:13but also the precious metals sector more broadly?
05:16We like precious metals
05:17because they're precious.
05:19And sometimes you find precious metals
05:22associated with base metals.
05:24So we're mining zinc in the Congo,
05:26but it has a lot of silver associated with that.
05:29We frequently find gold associated with copper.
05:33And precious metals have been doing very well
05:35against the United States dollar.
05:37The United States dollar has been weakening
05:39against a lot of these hard assets.
05:42That's a process that could easily continue.
05:44You believe that's going to continue?
05:46If you lower the interest rates on fiat currency,
05:50if the Fed is, in fact, going to lower rates,
05:52then one could argue that these precious metals
05:55and base metals will do very well
05:58against the United States dollar.
05:59That's not something we worry about
06:01because we don't want to waste time doing that.
06:04We look for the highest quality ore bodies
06:06where they can be developed sustainably
06:08in partnership with local communities.
06:10And that latter element,
06:13the partnership with local communities,
06:15is what's essential to be a sustainable miner.
06:18It's what's essential to be a sustainable miner.
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