Appointment comes one week after Gary Nagle replaced Ivan Glasenberg as CEO and marks a shift to new leadership for the company.

Oxford researchers say it is possible to extract copper, gold, zinc, silver and lithium from brines trapped in porous rocks at depths of 2 kilometres below dormant volcanoes.

The new methods involve retrieving parts of the battery so they can be reused, which can drastically cut costs and carbon emissions.

BloombergNEF turns super bullish about metals demand for batteries – ups forecast 35% to 2.7 terawatt hours per year by 2030 as electric cars take off.

Chinese state and private investors have spent more than $16 billion over the last decade buying copper mines and projects including nearly 50 in Africa.