I see the Chairman has now become the go to guy for comments on the copper market in this morning's AFR.Thumping global growth expectations and tightening supply have elevated the price of copper to a nine-year high and lifted the Australian dollar above US79¢ for the first time in three years.
The rally in the price of the metal, sometimes called Dr Copper for its economy-predicting properties, was shadowed by a sell-off in the bond market that caused Australia’s 10-year bond yield to rise above 1.5 per cent for the first time in two years.
Copper futures traded in Asia advanced 5.9 per cent to 67,150 yuan a tonne after LME copper on Friday broke through $US9000, a level unseen since 2011 when the European debt crisis was raging.
ASX copper stocks were in high demand on Monday, led by copper-gold producer Sandfire Resources, up 8.5 per cent to $5.61, and OZ Minerals, up 7 per cent to $22.63.
"There's no significant new developments around, and we're talking about millions of tonnes of copper in shortfall," said Dennis Wood, the chairman of ASX junior copper explorer KGL Resources, which is hitting up investors for $24 million to fund its Northern Territory Jervois copper project.
“The copper price had been pretty much stable for 10 years and there was very little exploration done because the big producers, particularly in South America, were producing it quite cheaply for a long time."
Operating costs are going up and grades are dropping.
"Copper is essential, you can’t fire electricity around without copper."
Mr Wood estimates global production at the moment is in the low 20 million range. “It doesn’t matter what you look at in green technology, it needs more copper.”
The electric vehicle thematic has been a huge boost to copper this time around, because EVs use more significantly more copper than standard vehicles with internal combustion engines, from the wiring to battery charging infrastructure.
https://www.copyright link/markets/debt-markets/growth-pulse-sends-copper-price-to-nine-year-high-20210222-p574or
