(Bloomberg) — AT&T Inc., BT Group Plc, Orange SA and their global peers are preparing to tap a rich new source of revenue: their aging copper facilities.
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In migrating to fiber optic cables, telecommunications companies could recover up to 800,000 metric tons of copper over the next decade, worth more than $7 billion at today’s prices, according to estimates from TXO, a company based in the UK providing engineering services. for the industry.
“We have all this redundant stuff,” said David Evans, who heads asset recovery at TXO. The company is working with BT, and Evans says discussions are ongoing with more than a dozen telecommunications companies around the world about copper recovery. “It’s a huge commercial opportunity.”
As a critical component of electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and other clean energy infrastructure, annual demand for copper could grow by more than 50% by 2040, according to BloombergNEF estimates. At the same time, mining is becoming more difficult and expensive.
This anticipated pressure has already raised prices by 50% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Even the highest recovery estimates would represent a small fraction of annual copper demand, possibly less if the migration to fiber optics is only partial, or if some copper cables must remain to avoid major disruptions, including maintaining access to critical health services in some places. Still, the additional offering would be welcome.
Read more: Why the world needs more copper – a lot more copper: QuickTake
AT&T says it is thinking strategically about where to focus its copper recycling efforts. Between 2021 and 2023, the company recycled more than 14 thousand tons of copper and expects the business to grow.
“With copper prices where they are, we are increasing significantly,” said Susan Johnson, an AT&T executive vice president who leads its copper recovery and resale efforts. The company is currently working with four copper recovery centers in the US and plans to add more.
Openreach Ltd., a BT subsidiary that manages its network infrastructure, estimates it could recover up to 200,000 tonnes of copper by 2030. “The recovery of copper cables generates net revenue, even after the costs of extracting the cables and processing them,” a spokesperson said in an email.
After the cables are removed from the ground, they must be stripped and cleaned to obtain the copper, which can then be sold to national and international buyers. At prices between $6,000 and $9,000 per ton, profit can be as high as 30% after extraction, recovery and processing costs, said TXO’s Evans.
Copper is widely used in industries ranging from electronics to construction. Between 2009 and 2019, more than 30% of the red metal was recycled, according to the International Copper Association.
–With assistance from Mark Burton.
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