From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40542826 re: the IEF report "Copper Mining and Vehicle Electrification" (2024) https://www.ief.org/focus/ief-reports/copper-mining-and-vehi... :

> Graphene is an alternative to copper

In graphene, there is electronic topology: current, semiconductivity, room temperature superconductivity

The punch note from the IEF copper report is

    Just to meet business-as-usual trends, 115% more copper must be mined in the next 30 years than has been mined historically until now.

    To electrify the global vehicle fleet requires bringing into production 55% more new mines than would otherwise be needed.

    On the other hand, hybrid electric vehicle manufacture would require negligible extra copper mining.

Large upcoming (potentially) copper prospects have significant environmental and native title issues; eg: Rio Tinto's Resolution Copper

US halts progress on proposed copper mine on indigenous land

    Rio Tinto hopes that the mine can provide 25% of US copper but would build it on land of religious significance for the Apache tribe.

https://www.mining-technology.com/news/us-forest-service-rio...