Copper mining is Opec on crack, so why is the price falling?
Half the world’s copper mining is controlled by just three countries, and China alone refines 40% of the metal central to the green energy transition away from fossil fuels.
Frik Els
Frik has 20 years’ experience as a business journalist across a range of industries including automotive, technology and entertainment markets. Frik has an entry in Global Mining Observer’s Who’s Who of Mining 2018, and contributions to publications and conferences including Business Insider, Investing.com, Mines & Money London and New York, Vancouver Resources Investment, Progressive Mine Forum in Toronto and Canadian Mining Symposium in London, UK. He’s been interviewed on CBC Radio and Korea State TV and quoted in the Financial Post.
Posts by Frik Els:
How Ivanhoe’s giant new Congo mine stacks up against copper mining’s top tier
Ivanhoe’s Kamoa-Kakula project is ramping up to 841,000 tonnes and $1.8 billion in free cash per year – report
MAPPED: These 25 projects will set the copper price for decades
A 6 million tonne copper supply gap will open up by the mid-2020s but projects needed to plug that gap face uphill battles.
Iron ore price correction delayed as global steel demand tops 2bn tonnes for first time ever
New report says China’s green push means end of cheap exports, deflating steel prices in rest of the world supporting iron ore prices.
CHART: Top miners leave money on the table amid copper price rally
Copper output from biggest producers disappoints with one glaring exception – Freeport McMoRan going underground at Grasberg.
120 year chart shows copper price supercycle only starting
First, in real terms the copper price is nowhere near a record high. And the 2000s China-induced supercycle wasn’t the first to originate in Asia either.
Cobalt, nickel price: Rapid LFP uptake dents EV bull case
Global per-vehicle use of nickel and cobalt has fallen by a fifth over the past year – in China, it’s down by more than 40%.
EV Metal Index jumps 85% in a month despite nickel, cobalt price drop
MINING.COM’s tracker of the value of battery metals in newly sold electric cars sets new monthly record despite retreat in nickel, cobalt prices and declining per vehicle usage.
New bull chart for $30,000 copper price: porphyries nearly mined out
Porphyries produce 80% of all copper but “the industry's ability to increase its reserve base by lowering cut-off grades is nearing an end” says new study.
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Dawn of a mining supercycle. Are you taking the fizz?
MINING.COM takes issue with a new white paper by Wood Mackenzie forecasting the varying impacts of the green energy transition on metals and mining demand.