Op-Ed: The copper supply crisis is a sulfur management crisis

By Randy Allen – Mining.com

On May 1, China halted exports of sulfuric acid. The reaction across commodity markets has been immediate and severe. But the deeper significance of this moment extends far beyond a single trade restriction. It reveals something the mining industry has been slow to acknowledge: sulfur is not waste. It is one of the most strategically important materials on Earth. And the inability to manage it is the binding constraint on copper production today. Geologists have been remarkably successful at finding copper deposits; the challenge has never been locating the ore but processing it without the sulfur becoming a liability.