Future greenhouse gas emissions from copper mining: Assessing clean energy scenarios

摘要: This report is submitted as part of the Commodity Futures component of the Mineral Futures Collaboration Cluster as a case study on copper. This report covers the case study on copper mining and smelting in Australia with a critical reflection on future environmental and technological challenges facing the copper related mining and mineral industries of Australia. A key focus is detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) modelling of the greenhouse gas emissions intensity of future copper mining and milling, based on a detailed copper resource data set.In this study, we focussed on analysing the likely future environmental footprint of primary copper supply, rather than how to meet copper demand. We develop a peak copper production model, based on a detailed copper resource data set, and combine this with a comprehensive life cycle assessment model of copper mining and milling to predict greenhouse gas emission rates and intensities of Australian and global copper production up to 2100. By establishing a quantitative prediction of both copper production and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions of Australian and global copper industry, we then analysed the emissions intensity of various energy input scenarios, such as business-asusual, solar thermal electricity and solar thermal electricity with biodiesel.