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In its first Sustainability Development report dealing with climate change released on Monday, Glencore argues that despite the rapid growth in renewable sources, coal will continue to be a mainstay of the global energy mix.
The Swiss mining and commodities trading giant said demand for coal was expected to grow by roughly 7% through 2030 to just over 6 billion tonnes of coal equivalent (btce) from 5.6 btce in 2013.
The growth is primarily driven by emerging markets that continue to build low cost, coal-fired electricity generation plants. Cumulative demand over the period of the study amounts to between 19 – 21 billion tonnes and in order to meet future demand 500 million to 1 billion tonnes of export capacity would have to be developed.
Source: Glencore (IEA 450 Scenario: limit global temperature increase to 2oC)
While non-fossil fuel sources are expected to grow by 53% through 2030, total energy produced from renewables (5.47btce) would still be less than from coal.
The seaborne market for coal is also predicted to grow on the back of demand from the steel, cement and chemical industries reaching 1.48 billion tonnes per year from 1.23 billion tonnes currently. While the Pacific region would underpin this growth due to a lack of domestic supply in some countries, the scrapping of European Union coal subsidies is likely to support imports by the region.
This means that if there is no new investment in coal mines and companies and governments increasingly adopt a “harvest strategy”, seaborne supply would halve in 15 years’ time.
Glencore, which produces 131 million tonnes of coal per year from mines in Australia, Colombia and South Africa said its own coal operations would be depleted by 2035 without new investment.
Glencore’s earnings from coal represent 23% of its headline earnings, second to copper at 25%. Glencore’s marketing and trading operations in metals and energy accounts for 23% of income.
[gview file=”http://glencore.com/assets/sustainability/doc/GLEN-Sustainable-Development-Presentation-20160613.pdf”]
4 Comments
TIP
Hogwash from Glencore. For those familiar with Xstrata, this doesn’t even compare to the sustainability efforts implemented my Mick Davis. Sorry for you Ivan Glasenberg the majority of that coal is going to stay in the ground whether you want to take it out or not.
Olumese Omo-ojugo
Dear Sir
We are a
small scale mining company in nigeria we are into mining of industrail
minerals like feldspar ,kaolin, limestone,dolomite, and other exportable
mineral like the base metals namely lead ore ,zince ore, copper ore,
and tin ore.We are also processing our coal site in kogi state Nigeria.
We are working on to start work in the lead
ore two site which is 65% above this year but we require fund up to
$250,000 to buy some few equipment ,we can start with used caterpillar
product.
We have a blue print to turn this business to a multimillionaire business as we have lots of client within and outtside Nigeria.
regards
Moses Olumese Omo Ojugo
Seth Energy and Mineral Ltd
No 24 Suroni house
Sakpoba road Benin city
Edo state Nigeria
+2348156736007 mobile
[email protected]
1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx1
Coal COSTS TOO MUCH.
It’s that simple.
There is zero credible business case for thermal coal, and metallurgic coal is getting iffy, with higher quality biochar far closer to market and cheaper to produce.
$100 million to open a mine, $60 million to sink each shaft, for maybe $55 million in coal to sell?
How is that a viable prospect?
Coal has been exploiting government subsidy and coasting on sunk cost arguments for a generation, and it’s now obvious to anyone who looks that coal has run its course and is done.
Salvage the value left by moving to geothermal and EGS, technology that produces far cheaper stationary power, or converting to other useful ventures, or sell off your equipment as scrap.
That’s the value left in coal.
Mining Matters
Oh yeah? Then why is Glencore closing its coal mines? http://www.mining.com/low-coal-prices-force-glencore-to-shut-australias-tahmoor-mine/