A startup is targeting copper’s supply problem at the scrap pile
As copper demand climbs and traditional mining faces mounting strain, a South Carolina startup is arguing that one of the most promising new supply sources is not underground ore but existing waste. Red Metals, based in Charleston, is building its business around recovering copper from old products and scrap, positioning urban mining as a response to both supply risk and industrial inefficiency.
The timing is not accidental. The supplied source text points to a steep rise in expected copper demand by 2040, with S&P analysis projecting growth of 50 percent and a possible shortfall of 10 million metric tons. Prices have already been pushed higher this year, and the reasons extend well beyond ordinary commodity cycles.
Why copper is under pressure
Copper sits at the center of several simultaneous build-outs. Electric vehicles need it. Grid upgrades need it. Household electrification needs it. Air conditioning demand keeps rising in a hotter world, and data centers are emerging as another enormous source of consumption. The article cites one estimate that a single hyperscale data center can use 50,000 tons of copper in cooling systems and power equipment alone.
That demand surge is arriving just as supply has become more fragile. The supplied text lists a series of disruptions: a major Indonesian mine still recovering from a deadly accident, a shutdown in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after wastewater flooding, labor strikes and an earthquake affecting a Chilean mine, and export restrictions by China on sulfuric acid, a material used in copper mining. The cumulative effect is a market where every shock carries more weight.
Red Metals’ pitch
Red Metals is trying to build a domestic loop around that instability. Founder and CEO Jackson Switzer, who previously worked at Redwood Materials, argues that the existing copper recovery chain is fragmented and inefficient. Only about half of the copper in existing products is recovered at end of life, according to the source text. In the United States, even material that is recycled is often shipped overseas for refining and then sent back.
The company’s premise is that this is wasteful in both the literal and industrial sense. Large amounts of usable copper already exist in old motors, scrap streams, and retired products. Recovering more of it domestically could ease supply pressure without depending entirely on new mine development.
Urban mining as industrial strategy
There is a reason this argument is gaining traction. New mines are slow, capital-intensive, and politically difficult. Recycling and recovery are not simple either, but they can sometimes scale faster and draw from material already circulating inside the economy. For a country worried about critical minerals, that makes urban mining more than an environmental concept. It becomes an industrial strategy.
Red Metals is also arriving in a policy environment increasingly shaped by supply-chain resilience. American manufacturing, electrification, and AI infrastructure all depend on metals that are often mined, processed, or refined through global chains vulnerable to disruption. A business model that shortens that loop can appeal to customers for cost, speed, and security reasons even before sustainability claims enter the discussion.
The data center effect
One of the more important details in the source text is the role of data centers. Copper shortages are often discussed through the lens of vehicles or renewable energy, but the AI buildout is becoming a major factor too. Data centers require extensive copper in power delivery and cooling infrastructure, and their construction pace has accelerated quickly. That creates a new overlap between digital growth and physical resource constraints.
In other words, the copper challenge is no longer confined to mining or heavy industry. It is part of the same infrastructure story that now includes AI, electrification, and grid expansion. That makes the search for alternative supply sources more urgent.
What success would mean
Red Metals is still a startup, so the broader thesis is larger than the company itself. The real question is whether urban mining can move from niche recovery work into a meaningful share of future copper supply. If it can, it would help reduce dependence on fragile global chains and put more value into materials already embedded in the economy.
The company’s bet is straightforward: in a world heading toward copper scarcity, the next major supply source may not come from deeper excavation, but from better recovery. If demand keeps rising the way current forecasts suggest, that argument will only become harder for industry and policymakers to ignore.
This article is based on reporting by Fast Company. Read the original article.
Originally published on fastcompany.com
