VYR, yes, there is a lot to learn indeed.There are many reasons...

VYR, yes, there is a lot to learn indeed.

There are many reasons people/Cos use shorting/hedging. The hedging HGO has against copper price is to guarantee a minimum price it fetches for copper because the Co thinks there's a chance copper prices could fall below a certain level. If you hold shares and do not want to sell them for whatever reason but you think the value is going down then you can hedge against that fall using your own shares, just as you could borrow shares and use those to short sell. Either way, regardless if we're talking short selling as a hedge in share price or commodity price, it results in the same outcome, a protection/profit against a fall in price.

If the Co thought copper price would be beyond the hedges offered, it possibly wouldn't hedge or would maintain a smaller hedge as protection.

On the ASX, naked short selling is definitely a no go but I think there are certain circumstances this is permitted. This means all short sales on the SAX must be covered IE, you must own the shares and yes, they could be borrowed. If you're really interested in the rules: https://www.claytonutz.com/insights/2018/october/asic-flags-some-relief-for-naked-short-selling might help.