China does not just dominate rare earths – it has quietly become indispensable in copper refining too

By Dylan Hartwell – nunneryplumbingandheating.co.uk

For years, rare earths symbolised China’s power over strategic minerals. Yet another metal underpins almost every green technology: copper. Without refined copper, wind farms stall, electric cars stay on drawing boards and data centres never connect to the grid.

Raw copper ore pulled from Chile, Peru, Congo or the United States looks nothing like the shiny red metal in a cable. It first passes through concentration, smelting and electrolysis to reach 99.99% purity. This refined form, cast into thick plates called cathodes, feeds factories that turn it into wires, coils and printed circuit boards.