For the longest time, copper was the Rodney Dangerfield of metals – it “didn’t get no respect, no respect at all.” It’s easy to understand why. After all, it doesn’t have the lure of silver, the value of gold, and it’s associated with cheap and inexpensive items like pennies. Well, the times are a-changin’, and now that its price has increased significantly, investors are looking at it from a new perspective. To the surprise of many, copper has become respectable.
“Copper prices have increased by more than 22.5% this year, reaching a high of almost $5 per pound and surging to a peak of around $11,000 per metric ton in October,” according to AI Overview. “This rise is attributed to supply disruptions, high demand driven by the artificial intelligence boom, and other factors like trade tensions and interest rate policies.” During the second half of October, the price has not only continued to increase, but the rate of increase has been accelerating.
The Beat Goes On
The elements responsible for the rise in the price of copper in the last two years remain in place. For example, the higher inflation rate that began in early 2021 still has not been brought under control and, as a result, the prices of many items are moving higher. Meanwhile, demand for the metal continues to increase steadily, particularly for copper wiring used in new data centers. And this is not limited to just a few areas but is global in nature.
The Asia-Pacific region, driven largely by China, is experiencing accelerating demand for copper. In China, for example, demand for copper in late October reached the highest level for all of 2025. The fastest-growing areas are India and Southeast Asia, where demand is also being fueled by new data centers, EVs, and grid battery storage.
Supply Problems
The price of a product is determined not only by demand but also by supply, and in the case of copper, both factors are driving prices higher. In recent months, production problems at major mines have slowed production and, in a few cases, brought production to a complete stop.
One of these is the Grasberg Mine in Indonesia; a serious mudslide brought production to a halt there – and also knocked out three percent of global supply overnight. Then there’s the El Teniente Mine in Chile, which closed temporarily due to an accident. The Kamoa-Kakula Mine in the Congo was unable to produce due to flooding. A variety of other issues at other mines also have impacted production, including equipment failure, political protests, and environmental problems.
According to AI Overview, although these problems appear to be temporary, they nevertheless have heightened fears of tighter supplies over the longer term and have thereby impacted prices more than they otherwise would have.
What does all of this suggest for the industry going forward? “We’re on a trend to have a very serious shortage of the metal,” Freeport-McMoRan CEO Richard Adkerson told CNBC. Freeport is one of the world’s largest producers of copper, gold, and molybdenum. Mike Philbrick, CEO at ReSolve Asset Management Global, told the Canadian financial news website Financial Post that “Copper is going to be the new oil.”
Lots of Winners
As is often the case, the best-performing stocks in every industry often include some of the leading companies as well as a number of small and emerging firms. The following have been among the best-performing copper companies over the last two years, with a brief description of their assets and recent activities, as noted by AI Overview.
Freeport-McMoRan is a major producer of copper and other metals. The company has posted impressive returns in recent years, in large part due to the rising price of copper, which generates a significant portion of its revenues.
Southern Copper is often ranked as one of the most profitable copper producers. Increasing production from its mines in Peru and Mexico has contributed to the company’s strong performance, according to AI Overview. Going forward, Southern Copper plans to draw on its significant reserves to further increase production, potentially leading to additional growth.
BHP began mining in 1885, and in the years since, it has grown from a small silver miner in New South Wales to a global resources leader. Along the way, it has become the largest producer of copper in the world and Australia’s largest company. BHP is also the world’s largest mining company based on market capitalization. The company plans to increase its copper business significantly in the coming years.
Teck Resources saw its copper production increase substantially in 2024 due to higher output at its Quebrada Blanca Mine in Chile, which boosted the company’s financial results significantly. Going forward, the large expansion of that mine will double Teck’s copper production, putting the company in an enviable position.
There have been numerous large-percentage gainers in the small and emerging company sector as it makes progress in exploration, financing, and plans for production.
New Opportunities
The increased demand for copper and the higher price it now commands have garnered the metal more attention on Wall Street and created more investment opportunities.
“Copper is no longer just a commodity,” said Luz Maria de la Mora, Director of the UN’s International Trade and Commodities Development. “It has become a strategic resource,” one that is essential for EVs, AI, renewable energy, and smart grids, to name just a few applications. “The problem is that supply already is not keeping up with demand,” she added, “and demand is expected to jump 40% by 2040.”
And this situation won’t improve any time soon because it’s becoming progressively more difficult to discover properties worth the risk of exploring, more expensive to bring into production when one is found, and development takes years.
Investors hoping to profit from the copper boom have a number of options to choose from, ranging from the highly speculative to the moderately risky to the low risk. A financial expert can help you decide how much of your portfolio (if any) should be allocated to copper and which approach is right for you.
Sources: AI Overview; citi.com; globaldata.com; harvard.edu; investingnews.com; mining.com; statista.com; YouTube: Copper Is Going to Be the New Oil; Wood Mackenzie Warns of Global Copper Shortage, Price Volatility
Gerald Harris is a financial and feature writer. Gerald can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
