No worries about that - we don't take copper very personally.
It is a classic by now - the world needs more copper but few wants the copper mines nearby. It is not a lack of copper as such as the discovered deposits are many times larger than the need. (5-6 times or so larger than all mined copper so far - then there is all the copper remaining to be discovered). And with prices having doubled in some years and continuing to rise many of these will now be lucrative for mining. Thus many want to reopen old mines or get new ones going.
But as you say that isn't very easy from a regulatory or society viewpoint - at least not in our countries. The area around here is old copper mine territory and all mines closed down when prices were low. There is still major deposits left though. Now, when prices are lucrative, it has proven very difficult to get them going again for a variety of reasons. They have been going at it for around 15 years already, and it might easily be 20 years and still nothing happening. For better and worse.
(I believe the windmills now require about 30 tons each. They keep getting bigger I guess).
If I'm to take a guess the higher copper prices will be met by more mines in countries with faster bureaucracy or fewer restrictions. Like here they have probably been working at it for quite some time already so supply will increase if prices keep up or increase even further. The blessings and curse of market economy at work.
And if the prices aren't high enough yet it is worth considering that those 80kgs of copper in an electric vehicle isn't a critical part of the overall cost. EVs could still pay a lot more for it without the price to the end user changing much. I'm more worried about other industries and infrastructure and the increased costs there.
Either way it will be a gradual change, and it will likely go slower and likely not as far reaching as politicians plans for a variety of reasons.
Anyway we didn't buy an EV for environmental reasons, green change, idealism or anything. We bought it because it was the best car for our use within our budget. If it is greener then that is nice, but we would happily have bought an ICE car if that had been competitive in those respects. Environmentalism or copper reserves had no influence on our choice of car.
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