Still Bright

To reach Net-Zero by 2050, the world needs to produce as much copper in the next 26 years as it has produced in all of human history. Clean energy technologies, such as wind energy, solar energy, and electric vehicles require two to five times as much copper as their traditional counterparts. Copper, however, is expected to be in short supply due to the high costs associated with the mining, concentrating, and processing of copper ore. Currently, copper faces supply chain limitations, as 80% of copper is produced by smelting, which is environmentally damaging, highly regulated, fossil fuel dependent, and high in capital costs. Due to these reasons, the majority of smelting is carried out in China, meaning that copper concentrate is shipped globally from mine sites to be processed in China, and refined copper is then shipped to where it is needed for use – a costly and energy-intensive supply chain, leaving the US without a geopolitically secure supply of this critical mineral. Still Bright is revolutionizing copper production with a patented electrochemical process that can replace smelting with a more efficient and sustainable alternative. The process, originally developed at Columbia University, expands copper production to currently nonviable resources, requires significantly lower capex than smelting, and can be integrated directly at mine sites to onshore production with renewable power. The Still Bright team is rapidly scaling this technology to provide the world with vast quantities of green copper.