Zhitong Financial APP learned that$Rio Tinto (RIO.US)$Mining CEO Sinead Kaufman said on Wednesday that consumer demand for lithium far exceeded the planned amount of mining. This metal is an important component of electric car batteries.
Rio Tinto PLC is investing more money in developing lithium and other battery metals and using waste from abandoned mines to recycle these minerals, Kaufman said. She added that the world's second-largest miner also wanted to expand its copper business beyond planned projects in Mongolia and the US.
Kaufman says customers demand environmentally sound mining practices that force miners to decarbonize during production.
"We have to decarbonize our business because we can't produce the materials needed for green transformation as we used to," she says. "