Skillings Mining Review January 2023: our cover asks whether copper is becoming the new lithium—the grid metal at the heart of EVs, renewables, and transmission build-outs. We weigh soaring demand against macro headwinds and price pressure, examine supply risk from permitting and grade decline, and map where new tons are most bankable.
Around the theme: Canada’s new critical minerals strategy, remote-controlled cobalt operations in the DRC, and whether U.S. policy is backing domestic miners. Battery-materials momentum shows up in lithium mega-mines, graphite (RC infill at Burke), nickel drilling at Lynn Lake, and pegmatites at Forrestania. Jobs and communities run through the issue—employment & wages in mining, finance roles opening (including Komatsu US), a nuclear site as a coal-jobs transition case, and new tech reviving an old gold mine.
We also track coal dynamics—European demand hitting Turkey, U.S. coal job resilience, and Western lenders restricting finance—plus ESG flashpoints from Venezuela’s sacred mountain to cultural change in sustainable mine design. The takeaway: copper is indispensable, but projects will win on permitting speed, social performance, and cost discipline.
