New Delhi: The world will soon face a copper shortage due to surging power demand from artificial intelligence data centres, the Economic Survey warned on Thursday, January 29, highlighting how critical minerals have become strategic choke-points in the global energy transition. To produce that much copper from ore with a 0.6 per cent yield, miners must process approximately 167-200 tonne of ore per tonne of copper produced, the survey said. In real mines, total material moved is typically two to four times higher once waste rock stripping is factored in. “If fully accounted for, total material moved per GW of wind power would likely exceed 1-2 million tonnes, not 0.48 million,” the survey said. The figures illustrate the scale of investment India may need to make in renewable energy generation and the tremendous amount of energy required in the first place, the survey added.