Copper price: Most popular stories of 2025

[Ben Graham]

Copper prices hit a fresh all-time high above $12,000 a tonne in London and $5.60 a pound in Chicago this week, capping a year characterized by  production outages, trade dislocations, mergers and acquisitions and ever more bullish predictions for the bellwether metal.    

Copper is on course for its biggest annual gain since 2009 amid extreme volatility and articles about the metal were some of our most read posts of 2025, among stiff competition from gold which has enjoyed its own breakout year. 

We also added a brand new page on MINING.COM to track live prices this year. Check it out here. In all, copper headlined stories were read more than 2.5 million times this year with the following articles leading the charge:

1. RANKED: World’s biggest copper mines

Escondida Image: BHP

Fittingly, our most popular article on copper in 2025 is the ranking of the world’s top 10 copper mines of 2024 by production.  No surprises that Escondida in Chile came in at number one with 1.28 million tonnes, but the massive BHP-Rio Tinto mine also managed to up output by more on a percentage basis than any of its competitors.  We did a follow up in October ranked by H1 2025 output and expanded the list to 20.

2.  An American mine still has millions of tons of copper, if companies can get to it

Morenci. Credit: Wikimedia Commons under license CC By 2.0

The Morenci mine in Arizona retains ~10M tonnes of copper in waste piles after 154 years of operation. Freeport-McMoRan is advancing sulfide leaching to extract it, targeting 400kt by 2030. A number of copper majors are looking into  the technology including BHP and Rio Tinto which are developing similar processes for chalcopyrite ores.

3. A mile underground, America’s largest untapped copper mine inches toward reality

Resolution copper project in Arizona. (Image courtesy of Rio Tinto via Flickr.)

It’s called Resolution Copper, and it holds enough of the critical metal to supply a quarter of US demand for years. Yet two decades and over $2 billion later, not a single ounce of copper has been mined. While engineers have thoroughly mapped the ore body and workers have built one of the deepest shafts in the US, the deposit owned by Rio Tinto Group and BHP Group has been stalled by permitting hurdles as well as tribal and environmental opposition. Resolution was in the news a few times in 2025 – in May a federal judge temporarily blocked the land transfer after opposition from Arizona’s San Carlos Apache people. 

4. Glencore said to consider shutting Canada’s largest copper plant

Horne. Credit: Glencore Canada.

  

Glencore is weighing closure of its Horne Smelter and Canadian Copper Refinery in Quebec due to $200M+ environmental upgrade costs, impacting >1,000 jobs and 300kt annual output. A spokesperson denied the plans and added that a possible closure is not related to a class-action lawsuit recently authorized by Quebec’s Supreme Court related to the smelter’s arsenic emissions dating back to 2020.

5. USGS officially adds copper, silver to critical minerals list

The US Geological Survey, doing the lord’s work since 1879, added copper and silver to its critical minerals list (now 60 total, with 10 new entries like uranium and potash), based on disruption modeling across 84 commodities and 402 industries.  The designation supports capital investments and permitting reforms – on paper at least. .

6. Copper price won’t stay above $11,000 for long, says Goldman

Stock image.

Amid all the bullish predictions Goldman Sachs injected some sobriety into the conversation of future copper prices. The investment bank forecasts copper prices will be constrained to $10,000 – $11,000 a tonne in 2026 due to a 160kt surplus and no shortage until 2029, despite current supply drains and US tariff concerns. The forecast was published early December and the most recent jumps in the price is unlikely to sway Goldman’s analysts.

7. Bank of America projects copper price to surge past $11,000 in 2026 

Stock image.

Back in September, Bank of America analysts raised forecasts to $11,313/t average in 2026 (up 11% compared to 2025) and $13,501/t in 2027 (up 12.5%), with spikes to $15,000/t, due to mine disruptions at Grasberg, El Teniente, Kamoa-Kakula, Quebrada Blanca II, and Cobre Panamá, plus low LME stocks and strong Chinese demand.

8. Chinese trader who made $1.5B on gold builds giant bet on copper price

Credit: Shanghai Futures Exchange

A reclusive Chinese billionaire whose prescient gold trades turned into an eye-catching windfall has now become the country’s biggest copper bull, amassing a bet worth nearly $1 billion in a market jolted by escalating competition between the US and China. In May, Bian Ximing held a ~90 killotonne net long position on Shanghai Futures and the bet had already yielded  ~$200M at the time  despite trade volatility.

9. Copper’s next shortage is structural, not hype: analyst

Stock image.

BloombergNEF forecasts structural deficit from 2026 on electrification demand outpacing supply, with a 19M tonnes shortfall by 2050 absent new mines and an increase in scrap coming to the market. Disruptions in Chile, Indonesia, Peru and delayed permitting will lend support.

10. One of the strangest chapters in copper mining is drawing to a close

Image: First Quantum Minerals

In April, MINING.COM visited the Cobre Panama mine, sitting idle in the South American jungle since protests and blockades forced its closure at the end of 2023:  “When copper prices are swinging this wildly it’s easy to lose sight of the giant hole that exists in the industry where dynamite meets bedrock.” Later in the year we sat down for a wide-ranging hour-long interview with First Quantum CEO Tristan Pascall to discuss the future of the company advancing some of the biggest undeveloped projects in South America, and the changing nature of global copper mining. 

11. Anglo American, Arc Minerals end Zambia copper venture

Anglo and Arc Minerals ended their 2022 Zambia JV in October marking the close of Anglo’s first new investment in the country in nearly 20 years. Anglo relinquishes shares, Arc regains control with $800k in assets. Arc shares fell 48% on the news and is now seeking new partners.

12. Anglo-Teck $53B merger may create larger copper complex than Escondida

Anglo American and Teck Resources’ planned $53 billion merger could create the world’s largest copper mine by the early 2030s, surpassing BHP’s Escondida in Chile, according to analysts. The centrepiece of the deal is the integration of Teck’s Quebrada Blanca (QB) mine with Anglo’s Collahuasi operation.

13. Copper price spikes on Freeport’s Grasberg force majeure 

In September, Freeport McMoRan declared force majeure at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia after a fatal accident and slashed its 2026 output guidance by 35%. Freeport updated on progress at Grasberg in November saying full production is expected to be restored in 2027.

14. Copper price collapses by 20% as US excludes refined metal from tariffs   

While the uptrend for copper prices this year appears inevitable in hindsight, it was not plain sailing for the metal. At the end of July prices plunged 20% after the US limited 50% tariffs to semi-finished products and excluded cathodes post-industry lobbying. That ended the arbitrage trade, for a while at least.

15. Global copper processing controlled by a familiar few 

An infographic from MINING.COM and The Northern Miner published in April reveals a stark divide in global copper processing power, with China firmly in control of more than half of global capacity. Nations within the Chinese sphere process 53.1% of the world’s copper, far surpassing the American-aligned bloc at 15.6% and the “Coalition of the Willing” at 19%. Click here for the same analysis of copper extraction in infographic form. 

16. Copper squeeze deepens as LME stockpiles plunge

The recent record highs for copper were precipitated as far back as June when copper backwardation hit a $345 per tonne premium for spot over futures.  LME stocks had fallen by 80% and were down to just one day global use at the time, driven by US tariff stockpiling. Chinese smelters face $45/t treatment charges; LME curbs large positions, with backwardations to June 2026.

17. Ivanhoe Mines fires up Africa’s largest copper smelter

Ivanhoe ignited its 500ktpa direct-to-blister smelter at Kamoa-Kakula in the DRC on November 21 expecting first feed by year-end for 99.7% pure anodes. Powered by hydro from Inga II, it processes Phases 1-3 concentrates, starting with 37kt on-site inventory.

18.  Global copper surplus to more than double in 2025 – ICSG

As an indication of just how difficult predicting the copper market became in 2025, the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) said in its April forecast that the global copper market is expected to see a significant surplus over the next two years as the negative impacts of US tariffs on demand outweigh supply growth. 

19. Glencore investors question strategy as copper bonanza eludes miner

At a time when miners around the world are rushing to produce more copper, Glencore’s copper production was expected to drop for a fourth straight year. It’s being forced to consider shutting or selling struggling smelters, and Glencore itself hasn’t reported a net profit since the first half of 2023. While the company’s shares trading in London is up by double digit percentage points this year for a $62 billion valuation, the stock remains one of the worst performers in the sector.

20. Hudbay receives all permits for Copper World project in Arizona

Hudbay Minerals’ proposed 85,000-tonne-per-year Copper World project in Arizona became fully permitted in January after receiving all three key state-level permits. But 2025 was not without challenges for the Canadian miner and its Constancia mill in Peru was temporarily shut down in September due to riots in Lima and several protests across the country.