The e-commerce giant has invested in the most important source of copper in the United States. An extraction site in Arizona, which will strategically serve to expand the technological capabilities of its data centers. All together with one of the largest mining groups in the world, Rio Tinto.
With Donald Trump back to White HouseAlso Amazon go back to chooseAmerica First. The world leader in e-commerce has in fact decided to link a fundamental part of its own industrial strategy to a mineArizona for the next decades. This is a site in Cochise County that has been abandoned for over ten years, now reopened specifically for this purpose and which already stands as the first source of copper of the United States. The general objective is to respond to the growing demand for the metal essential to fuel the expansion of data centers dedicated toartificial intelligence.
Amazon beyond e-commerce
In fact, Amazon doesn’t just deliver packages: Jeff Bezos’ company is also (above all) one technological multi-utility and a digital and logistics services giant through Amazon Web Servicesthe platform of cloud computing most complete and widespread in the world, offering over 200 on-demand services (computing, storage, database, AI) via the Internet, for large companies and government agencies.
The pilot project in Arizona
The mining site in Arizona has been reactivated as pilot project to test the method RIO (Rank-Importance-Opportunity)developed by Rio Tinto Groupone of the world’s largest mining and metals groups, with offices in London and Melbourne. It is a system of risk management and of asset optimization Mainly used in mining and industry. A technology designed to make us exploitable low concentration copper deposits.
Nuton and the industrial gamble
The mining group has signed a contract with Amazon Web Services supply contract lasting two years through the subsidiary Nuton: a passage that represents a great industrial bet. Nuton, in fact, uses a process based on bacteria and acidic solutions to recover copper from ores that, until recently, were not workable.
Big tech’s race for raw materials
Amazon’s move is part of a broader rush of big tech to make sure energy, raw materials and critical infrastructure necessary to build and manage increasingly powerful data centers. However, the quantities of copper produced through Nuton will only cover one minimum fraction of the overall needs of the technological giant. A single data center requires indeed tens of thousands of tons of copper (for cables, bus bars, electronic circuits, transformers and for the electrical architecture that supports similar systems). Approximately 14 thousand tons of cathodes that Rio Tinto expects to obtain from the Nuton project in Arizona will not be enough to power a single one of these facilities. But it is the beginning of a journey that brings mining back to America.
Relaunches and global demand
The mining group has already reopened a mine east of Tucson, and has entered into agreements to extend the technology to other sites including South America. The strategy aims to recover material a low tenor remained unused in older mines, to increase supply in a historical phase in which identifying new exploitable deposits is increasingly complex, while the global demand continues to grow. And this is thanks to the boom in data centers, to modernization of electricity networksto the diffusion of electric vehicles and the development of renewable; all situations where copper is traditionally used.
Record prices and duties
Meanwhile, on the market front, the copper price reached new all-time highs with a jump of 41 percent in the last year and the prices that have exceeded the threshold of $6 a pound. This is why the White House is considering the introduction of additional dutieswhich would go beyond the tax of 50 percent already applied last summer on copper products such as cables and pipes.
The risk for artificial intelligence
According to extractive industry executives and economic forecasters, a structural copper deficiency it is a direct brake on the development ofArtificial intelligencewhich has supported financial markets in recent years and established itself as a major driver of US growth. An analysis published by S&P Global It also estimates that, by 2040, artificial intelligence will increase the demand for copper by 50 percent compared to current levels, while mining production is destined to contract, generating a potential deficit of 25 percent. «This emerging imbalance constitutes a systemic risk for global industry, for technological innovation and for economic growth”, warn the authors of the study.
Decarbonization and strategy
Since the opening of new mines has exorbitant costs And uncertain timing regarding extraction, companies like Rio Tinto are increasingly looking for sites ready for relaunch. «Not only do we recover material that would otherwise have remained unused, but we do so by reducing it carbon emissions And water consumption», explained Katie Jackson, CEO of Rio Tinto’s copper division. Despite the scaling back of federal environmental policies under the Trump administration, many large companies, including Amazon, continue to pursue them at the same time decarbonization objectives.
Copper and cloud, the exchange
«We work upstream, on the raw materialsto identify solutions to low emissions that support the growth of our business,” said Chris Roe, global head of carbon strategies at Amazon. «This applies to steel, to concrete and, of course, to copper necessary for our data centers.” The metal will therefore be mined in America again, and will be destined exclusively for related companies made in the USAthat is, those that produce the components used in Amazon’s infrastructures. In exchange, the Anglo-Australian group Rio Tinto will receive cloud computing services And advanced analysis tools to improve efficiency and accelerate its industrial expansion.
