{"id":71568,"date":"2025-10-13T10:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/71568\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T10:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:49:12","slug":"mining-billionaire-warns-over-breakdown-in-international-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/71568\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining billionaire warns over \u2018breakdown in international order\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stay informed with free updates<\/p>\n

Simply sign up to the Mining myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Billionaire mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland has warned that rising geopolitical tension is contributing to a \u201cbreakdown in the international order\u201d with far-reaching consequences for global supply chains.<\/p>\n

Friedland, founder of Toronto-listed Ivanhoe Mines, said trade tensions including worsening US-China relations were making it more difficult and expensive for miners to obtain the equipment they needed, contributing to project delays.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a breakdown in the international order,\u201d Friedland told the Financial Times at the start of LME week, an annual gathering of metals and mining industry executives and traders. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese tensions are Balkanising the world economy, and we see it in the copper industry,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what you\u2019re ordering, the lead times are extending,\u201d while building new mines was \u201cgetting more and more expensive,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have very significant global tensions developing\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009Unlike anything I\u2019ve seen,\u201d said Friedland. <\/p>\n

China last week unveiled new export restrictions on rare earth metals and magnets<\/a> that are vital to sectors from carmaking to defence. <\/p>\n

That prompted US President Donald Trump to say he would impose additional tariffs on Beijing<\/a>, with China then threatening further countermeasures.<\/p>\n

\"Robert Robert Friedland: \u2018We have very significant global tensions developing\u2019 \u00a9 Aaron M. Sprecher\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n

A broad range of countries and products, including copper and aluminium, are already subject to new US import tariffs. <\/p>\n

The price of copper \u2014 which is widely used in industries from energy to technology \u2014 has risen sharply recently after a series of supply shocks<\/a>. <\/p>\n

US miner Freeport-McMoRan said in September it would be unable to fulfil customer contracts following a fatal mudslide at its huge Grasberg mine<\/a> in Indonesia, while operations at Codelco\u2019s El Teniente mine were partially suspended following a fatal tunnel collapse in July.<\/p>\n

Prices had climbed close to a record high of more than $11,000 per tonne last week, though they fell again on Friday in response to the latest US-China trade spat. <\/p>\n

Friedland said the world was in \u201cthe foothills of a major shortage of copper\u201d that would hit before the end of this decade, while M\u00e1ximo Pacheco, chair of Chile state-owned copper miner Codelco, told the FT the world was already in a supply \u201cdeficit.\u201d <\/p>\n

The industry was now most worried about \u201coperational continuity\u201d \u2014 the ability of copper miners to keep producing without disruptions \u2014 said Pacheco. <\/p>\n

Codelco announced on Monday that it had taken a minority stake in I-Pulse, a technology company co-founded by Friedland.<\/p>\n

I-Pulse is developing power technologies for a range of uses, including to reduce the energy required to crush and grind rocks. <\/p>\n

The backers of I-Pulse and its subsidiaries include Bill Gates\u2019 Breakthrough Energy Ventures and mining majors BHP<\/a> and Rio Tinto. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need new technology in order to improve our competitiveness and our cost structure,\u201d said Pacheco. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Mining myFT Digest — delivered directly to your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-71568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}