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It's becoming apparent to me, the extent a rise in USD (through a raise in interest rates) has on the copper price...

When interest rates rise in USD terms, USD FOREX gains against the rest of the world, making copper more expensive in local (AUD) terms. If left unchecked (by a subsequent drop in copper price), a new global supply and demand equilibrium will need to be found (a lower demand because of the gain in USD). So interest rates rise -> USD rise as a multiplier -> drop in commodity price (in USD terms) to maintain the same demand. And it's the extent to which FOREX responds to something banal like a 0.5% change in interest rates has on FOREX that I didn't fully grasp.

What's interesting is that China is pegged to the USD. So in RMB terms, copper has got materially cheaper, which may drive up demand.... My fear is that in fact, demand is relatively inelastic and unresponsive to the speculation that has caused the price to fall.... In the long run I think this is too depressed to stay here for long (no new supply will be approved, and marginal supply will die off), and if we were debt free I would actually welcome the exposure to copper prices and see this as an opportunity to buy more. But, well, yeah....