Metals Go Boom
The Economist has an interesting report about massive profits logged by the world’s major mining companies. In particular, they cite the success of Rio Tinto, the British-Australian mining giant. In 2010 Rio Tinto saw $14.3 billion in profits. The Economist credits this profit mainly to a rise in demand for iron ore, and that’s where the article gets really interesting.
See, the worldwide demand for iron ore is still growing. Countries like China and India are developing their urban centers at a tremendous rate, and that means more demand for metals in their buildings and transportation infrastructure. In addition to that, richer nations are recovering form the recession and starting to build again. Worldwide, demand for metals is expected to double in the next 20 years!
This is awesome news for an urban junkie like myself, although of course it raises concerns about population centralization and its affects on culture, food production, the environment, etc. I hinted at some of those centralization concerns in a post last week.
