While Twin Metals investigates northern Minnesota, the Chinese are already digging some of the biggest and most controversial copper mines in the world today. In Afghanistan, the Aynak mine threatens ancient Buddhist sculptures. In Burma, a copper mine run by the Chinese military is destroying ancient farmland and causing mass protests. Let me be clear: a doubling of U.S. copper scrap exports to China wouldn’t halt this destructive trend. But it might just reduce some of the demand for that virgin copper.
