Raptor Resources (RAP:AU) has announced Raptor Completes Further Drilling at Chester Project
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Strong demand in the face of looming supply shortages has pushed copper to new heights in recent years.
With a wide range of applications in nearly every sector, copper is by far the most industrious of the base metals. In fact, for decades, the copper price has been a key indicator of global economic health, earning the red metal the moniker “Dr. Copper.” Rising prices tend to signal a strong global economy, while a significant longer-term drop in the price of copper is often a symptom of economic instability.
After bottoming out at US$2.17 per pound, or US$5,203.58 per metric ton (MT), in mid-March 2020, copper has largely been on an upward trajectory.
Why is copper so expensive in 2026? Higher copper prices over the past few years have largely been attributed to a widening supply/demand gap. Copper mining and refining activities simply haven’t kept up with the rebound in economic activity in recent years, and rising demand from AI infrastructure and electrification are raising demand even higher.
Now, global copper mine supply is tightening at a time when US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are placing further strains on copper supply. In response, copper prices hit multiple new records in 2025 and 2026.
In this article
What key factors drive the price of copper?
Robust demand has long been one of the strongest factors driving copper prices. The ever-growing number of copper uses in everyday life — from building construction and electrical grids to electronic products and home appliances — make it the world’s third most-consumed metal.
Copper’s anti-corrosive and highly conductive properties are why it’s the go-to metal for the construction industry, and it’s used in products such as copper pipes and copper wiring. In fact, construction is responsible for nearly half of global copper consumption. Rising demand for new homes and home renovations in both Asian and Western economies is expected to support copper prices in the long term.
In recent decades, copper price spikes have been strongly tied to rising demand from China as the economic powerhouse injects government-backed funding into new housing and infrastructure. Industrial production and construction activity in the Asian nation have been like rocket fuel for copper prices.
Additionally, copper’s conductive properties are increasingly being sought after for use in renewable energy applications, including thermal, hydro, wind and solar energy.
However, the biggest driver of copper consumption in the renewable energy sector is rising global demand for electric vehicles (EVs), EV charging infrastructure and energy storage applications. As governments push forward with transportation network electrification and energy storage initiatives as a means to combat climate change, copper demand from this segment is expected to surge.
New energy vehicles use significantly more copper than internal combustion engine vehicles, which only contain about 22 kilograms of copper. In comparison, hybrid EVs use an average of 40 kilograms, plug-in hybrid EVs use 55 kilograms, battery EVs use 80 kilograms and battery electric buses use 253 kilograms.
In 2025, EV sales worldwide increased by 20 percent over 2024 to come in at about 20.7 million units, and analysts at Rho Motion expect that trend to continue in the coming years despite some headwinds in the near-term.
On the supply side of the copper market, the world’s largest copper mines are facing depleting high-grade copper resources, while over the last decade or more new copper discoveries have become few and far between. This is a challenging problem considering it can take as many as 10 to 20 years to move a project from discovery to production.
There have also been ongoing production issues at copper mines over the past few years. In late 2023, First Quantum Minerals (TSX:FM,OTCPL:FQVLF) was forced to shut down its Cobre Panama mine by the government following wide-spread protests. Then, in 2025, accidents at Ivanhoe’s (TSX:IVN,OTCQX:IVPAF) Kamoa-Kakula mine in Mali and Freeport-McMoRan’s (NYSE:FCX) Grasberg mine in Indonesia wiped out hundreds of thousands of metric tons of production.
While all three mines are expected to return to production, it will take time before they reach full capacity and will continue to exacerbate supply deficits in the copper market.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is forecasting a 30 percent shortfall in the amount of copper needed to meet demand by 2035. “This will be a major challenge. It’s time to sound the alarm,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said.
This has increased the need for end users to turn to the copper scrap market to make up for the supply shortage. Sometimes referred to as “the world’s largest copper mine,” recycled copper scrap contributes significantly to supplying and balancing the copper market.
“We are seeing signs this could change. Much of the growth over the last five years has come from brownfield expansions rather than greenfield/new discoveries,’ she said. ‘Technology will likely help increase the chance of discovery, and broadly I would say that policymakers are now more supportive of mineral exploration as the push to secure critical raw materials supply has moved up the agenda.’
Joannides offered some examples of greenfield projects in the pipeline: Capstone Copper’s (TSX:CS,OTC Pink:CSCCF) Santo Domingo in Chile, Southern Copper’s (NYSE:SCCO) Tia Maria in Peru and Teck Resources’ (TSX:TECK.A,TECK.B,NYSE:TECK) Zafranal in Peru.
How has the copper price moved historically?
Taking a look back at historical price action, the copper price has had a wild ride for more than two decades.
Sitting at US$1.38 per pound in late January 2005, the copper price followed global economic growth up to a high of US$3.91 in April 2008. Of course, the global economic crisis of 2008 soon led to a copper crash that left the metal at only US$1.29 by the end of year.
Once the global economy began to recover in 2011, copper prices posted a new record high of US$4.58 per pound at the start of the year. However, this high was short-lived as the copper price began a five year downward trend, bottoming out at around US$1.95 in early 2016.
Copper prices stayed fairly flat over the next four years, moving in a range of US$2.50 to US$3 per pound.
20 year COMEX copper price chart, 2006 to 2026.
Chart via Macrotrends.
The pandemic’s impact on mine supply and refined copper in 2020 pushed prices higher despite the economic slowdown. The copper price climbed from a low of US$2.17 in March to close out the year at US$3.52.
In 2021, signs of economic recovery and supercharged interest in EVs and renewable energy pushed the price of copper to rally higher and higher. Copper topped US$4.90 per pound for the first time ever on May 10, 2021, before falling back to close at US$4.76.
Also affecting the copper price at that time was expectations for higher copper demand amid supply concerns out of two of the world’s major copper producers: Chile and Peru. In late April 2021, port workers in Chile called for a strike, while in Peru presidential candidate Pedro Castillo proposed nationalizing mining and redrafting the country’s constitution.
In early May 2021, news broke that copper inventories were at their lowest point in 15 years. Expert market watchers such as Bank of America commodity strategist Michael Widmer warned that further inventory declines into 2022 could lead to a copper market deficit.
After climbing to start 2022 at US$4.52, the copper price continued to spike on economic recovery expectations and supply shortages to reach US$5.02 per pound on March 6. Throughout the first quarter, fears of supply chain disruptions and historically low stockpiles amid rising copper demand drove prices higher.
However, copper prices pulled back in mid-2022 on worries that further COVID-19 lockdowns in China, as well as a growing mortgage crisis, would slow down construction and infrastructure activity in the Asian nation. Rising inflation and interest hikes by the Fed also placed downward pressure on a wide basket of commodities, including copper. By late July 2022, copper prices were trading down at nearly a two year low of around US$3.30.
In the early months of 2023 the copper price was trading over the US$4 per pound level after receiving a helpful boost from continuing concerns about low copper inventories, signs of rebounding demand from China, and news about the closure of Peru’s Las Bambas mine, which accounts for 2 percent of global copper production.
However, that boost turned to a bust in the second half of 2023 as China continued to experience real estate sector issues, alongside the economic woes of the rest of the world. The price of copper dropped to a low for the year of US$3.56 per pound in mid October.
Elevated supply levels kept copper trading in the US$3.50 to US$3.80 range for much of Q1 2024 before experiencing strong gains that pushed the price of the red metal to US$4.12 on March 18.
Those gains were attributed to in part to tighter copper concentrate supply following the closure of First Quantum Minerals’ Cobre Panama mine, guidance cuts from Anglo American (LSE:AAL,OTCQX:AAUKF) and declining production at Chile’s Chuquicamata mine. In addition, China’s top copper smelters announced production cuts after limited supply led to lower profits from treatment and refining charges.
BHP’s (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BHP) attempted takeover of Anglo American also stoked fears of even tighter global copper mine supply. These supply-side challenges continued to juice copper prices in Q2 2024, causing a jump of nearly 29 percent from US$4.04 per pound on April 1 to a then all-time high of US$5.20 by May 20, 2024.
After starting 2025 at US$3.99 per pound, copper prices were lifted in Q1 by increasing demand from China’s economic stimulus measures, renewable energy and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and stockpiling brought on by fear of US President Trump’s tariff threats.
At the time, Trump had said the US was considering placing tariffs of up to 25 percent on all copper imports in a bid to spark increased domestic production of the base metal.
In late February, he signed an executive order instructing the US Commerce Department to investigate whether imported copper poses a national security risk under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The price of copper reached a new high price of US$5.24 per pound on March 26 as tariff tensions escalated.
Trump’s tariff talk sparked yet another copper price rally in early July when he announced he plans to impose a 50 percent tariff on all imports of the red metal, and it moved higher towards the end of the month in anticipation of them entering effect. By the end of the month, the copper price had climbed to US$5.96 per pound.
However, copper’s price plummeted back toward the US$4 mark on July 31 following the reveal that tariffs would not be imposed on imports of raw or refined copper, instead targeting semi-finished copper products.
The price began to rebound once again in September following the accident at Freeport McMoRan’s Grasberg mine, ultimately tipping the market from a surplus position into a deficit.
The price crossed back above the US$5 mark by the end of October, and, with supply and demand fundamentals fueling its momentum, copper was trading at US$5.60 by the end of 2025.
What was the highest price for copper ever?
The highest ever copper price on the COMEX is US$6.61 per pound, while the highest LME copper price is US$14,572.54 per metric ton. Copper hit both of these new all-time highs on January 29, 2026. Read on to found out how the copper price reached those heights.
Why did the copper price hit an all-time high in 2026?
The new copper high on January 29, 2026, resulted from a buying spree driven by speculative trading, primarily out of China amid growing expectations of higher growth in the US economy and an increased global spending on data centers and power infrastructure projects.
That day, copper prices on the LME jumped 11 percent, although the gain had lessened to a 4 percent jump by the close of trading.
Looking at the bigger picture, copper’s rally in recent years has encouraged bullish sentiment on prices looking ahead. In the longer term, the fundamentals for copper are expected to get tighter as demand increases from sectors such as EVs and energy storage.
A May 2024 report from the International Energy Forum (IEF) projected that as many as 194 new copper mines may need to come online by 2050 to support massive demand from the global energy transition.
Additionally, a January 2026 report from S&P Global stated that the world will need 14 million more metric tons of copper annually to meet demand compared to 2025’s 27 million MT of copper. The firm reports that supply is expected to peak in 2030 without expansion.
Looking at renewable energy, according to the Copper Development Association, solar installations require about 5.5 MT of copper for every megawatt, while onshore wind turbines require 3.52 MT of copper and offshore wind turbines require 9.56 MT of copper.
The rise of AI technology is also bolstering the demand outlook for copper. Commodities trader Trafigura has said AI-driven data centers could add 1 million MT to copper demand by 2030, reports Reuters.
Where can investors look for copper opportunities?
Copper market fundamentals suggest a return to a bull market cycle for the red metal in the medium-term. The copper supply/demand imbalance also presents an investment opportunity for those interested in copper-mining stocks.
If you’re looking to diversify your portfolio with other investment options, check out copper ETFS and ETNs or copper futures contracts.
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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Red Mountain Mining Limited (ASX: RMX, US CODE: RMXFF, or “Company”), a Critical Minerals exploration and development company with an established portfolio in Tier-1 Mining Districts in the United States and Australia, is pleased to announce an update on the Company’s portfolio of high-quality Antimony projects in the United States.
Over the past six months, Red Mountain has moved decisively to acquire assets in Tier-1 regions in highly prospective antimony mineral districts in Montana, Utah and Idaho, USA, placing the Company in a strong strategic position as the US Government moves aggressively to secure domestic supply of Antimony which is classified as a Critical Metal by the United States and Australian Governments.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Red Mountain continues to deliver repeated successful project and development programs across its high-quality Critical Minerals portfolio, systematically advancing its United States and Australian projects toward development and directly supporting the US Government’s drive to secure domestic supply of critical metals
Thompson Falls Antimony Project, High-grade Antimony next to UAMY Antimony Smelter
- Thompson Falls Antimony Project is 4.2km from the operations of United States Antimony Corporation (NYSE: UAMY; Market Cap $A1.5 billion), with the country’s only operating Antimony smelter
- Initial sampling from Red Mountain’s Thompson Falls Project returned high-grade values of up 36.5% Sb and 0.65g/t Au
- Additional assay results are now expected to be received by the end of February
- Comprehensive surface mapping and sampling program to fast-track the definition of the Thompsons Falls Antimony Project resource potential, planned to launch next month
- Red Mountain has recently strengthened its US technical team with dedicated drill-permitting expertise, driving the permitting process forward across all of the Company’s US Projects
Utah Antimony Project, Antimony Mining District
- Utah Antimony Project adjoins American Tungsten and Antimony Ltd’s (ASX: AT4; Market cap A$200 million) Antimony Canyon Project (ACP), one of the largest and highest-grade Antimony projects in the USA, which has reported assays of up to 33% Sb and has a defined conceptual Exploration Target of 12.8 to 15.6 Mt @ 0.75% to 1.5% Sb, containing between 96,000 to 234,000 tons of Antimony metal
- Recent visible stibnite mineralisation observed between AT4’s claims and RMX’s project provides evidence the ACP system may extend into the Utah Antimony Project*
- Mapping analysis previously undertaken by RMX suggests that both the same type of host rocks and extensions of the large epithermal Antimony mineralising system targeted by AT4 at Antimony Canyon are present within the Utah Antimony Project**
Exceptionally Strong Antimony results from Thompson Falls and further assays pending
Red Mountain acquired the Thompson Falls Antimony Project on 5 February1, next to the only operating antimony smelter in the USA, US Antimony Corporation’s (NYSE: UAMY; Market Cap ~AU$1.5 billion) Thompson Falls Smelter and UAMY’s Stibnite Hill Mine in Montana (Figure 1).
First-pass exploration of Red Mountain’s Thompson Falls Antimony Project, by the Company’s US field team, successfully located three historical underground mines and pit within the project area. Initial sampling of material from Eastern Star returned multiple samples with high antimony and gold results, with peak results of 36.5% Sb and 0.65g/t Au1 (Figure 1; Figure 2).
Samples collected from Eastern Star closely resemble the quartz-stibnite veins mined at UAMY’s Stibnite Hill deposit, ~7km east of Red Mountain’s Thompson Falls Project area, although these veins are not recorded as producing gold. Red Mountain’s field team also collected additional rock samples from the project area, with assay results expected this month.
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Here’s a quick recap of the crypto landscape for Monday (February 23) as of 9:00 p.m. UTC.
Get the latest insights on Bitcoin, Ether and altcoins, along with a round-up of key cryptocurrency market news.
Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$64,409.84, down by 4.4 percent over the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin price performance, February 23, 2026.
Chart via TradingView.
XS.com senior market analyst Linh Tran suggested that the medium-term uptrend is limited without major catalysts. She predicts that Bitcoin will fluctuate between US$65,000 support and US$70,000 resistance; however, if current pressures persist, there is a risk of Bitcoin retesting the US$60,000 low, which could trigger a deeper decline.
Software stocks slipped alongside a further decline in crypto prices after Anthropic said its Claude platform can help ‘break the cost barrier to COBOL modernization,’ a high-level, compiled computer programming language that the firm says ‘runs in production every day, powering critical systems in finance, airlines, and government.’
Ether (ETH) was priced at US$1,860.34, down by 4.1 percent over the last 24 hours.
Altcoin price update
- XRP (XRP) was priced at US$1.36, down by 2 percent over 24 hours.
- Solana (SOL) was trading at US$78.37, down by 5.6 percent over 24 hours.
Today’s crypto news to know
Yield Basis thrives on market volatility
Some parts of the DeFi ecosystem have benefited from the chaos of Bitcoin’s sudden price drop in January, which liquidated billions of dollars’ worth of positions. A DeFi project called Yield Basis, which helps people trade Bitcoin and Ether through its liquidity pools, says it’s handled US$769 million in trades since the beginning of 2026, with more than half occurring after January 28, when crypto prices began swinging wildly.
According to a recent report, the protocol has collected US$12.15 million in fees since it launched its v2 pools in November 2025, compared to US$5.31 million worth of tokens it paid out as rewards, leaving about US$6.84 million in net profit for the users providing liquidity and holding the project’s tokens.
Open-source AI project distances itself from crypto
An open-source AI agent framework known as OpenClaw has inadvertently become the center of a crypto controversy. The project, built to power autonomous agents capable of browsing the web and executing complex tasks, was briefly rebranded amid a naming dispute before scammers launched a fake Solana-based token using its former branding.
The token’s market capitalization surged to roughly US$16 million within hours before collapsing more than 90 percent after developer Peter Steinberger disavowed any connection.
Steinberger publicly rejected the speculation, writing on X: “To all crypto folks: please stop pinging me, stop harassing me. I will never do a coin. Any project that lists me as coin owner is a SCAM.”
USDT contraction flashes rare stress signal
Tether’s USDT stablecoin is signaling liquidity strain reminiscent of the market turmoil following the FTX collapse.
According to CryptoQuant, the 60 day change in USDT supply has dropped to negative US$3 billion, which marks only the second time such a contraction has occurred. Bloomberg reported that USDT is on pace for its steepest monthly supply decline since December 2022, already shrinking by roughly US$1.5 billion in February alone.
Large-scale redemptions typically suggest institutions or major holders are pulling capital out of the crypto ecosystem rather than simply rotating between tokens. The last comparable contraction came as Bitcoin fell toward US$16,000 during the FTX crisis before stabilizing and beginning a multi-year recovery.
Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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The era of “smooth globalization” is over, and mining is entering a more fragmented, politically charged phase defined by strategic nationalism, according to speakers at S&P Global’s latest webinar.
Jason Holden, who opened the “State of the Market: Mining Q4 2025” session with a macro overview, said the industry is operating in a world increasingly shaped by supply chain security and state intervention.
“For decades we operated under a model of frictionless trade,” said Holden, a senior mining analyst at the firm. “That era is over. We’ve entered a world of strategic re-nationalization.”
While the base economic outlook remains resilient, with moderate growth and easing headline inflation, Holden warned that “sticky core inflation remains stubbornly high.”
For mining companies, that has two major implications: higher capital costs and less room for the easy-money valuation surges seen in past cycles. Central banks, led by the US Federal Reserve, are no longer aggressively tightening, but are also not on a clear-cut path to interest rate cuts.
“We’re no longer on a predictable path of easing,” Holden explained to listeners. “The market is now focused on if and when cuts might resume.” At the same time, geopolitical disputes are increasingly spilling into trade policy. The conversation around critical minerals, he noted, has shifted decisively.
“It’s no longer just about economics,’ said Holden. “It’s explicitly framed as national security.”
That shift is driving greater government intervention, subsidies, capital screening and “friend-shoring,” where materials are sourced from politically aligned nations.
Gold’s insurance premium
Nowhere has geopolitical risk been more visible than in gold.
The metal surged to fresh highs in early 2026 after setting 40 new records in 2024 and 53 more in 2025, a pace not seen since 1979. The price briefly pushed beyond US$5,500 per ounce at the start of the year.
“The message from this price action is unmistakable,” Holden said. “In an uncertain world, the market is paying a premium for insurance, and gold is the ultimate safe asset.”
While short-term flashpoints helped fuel the rally, the structural driver has been central bank buying. Since sanctions in 2022 prompted reserve managers to rethink US dollar exposure, official sector purchases have accelerated.
“The sustained buying from central banks is the real engine behind the rally,” Holden said.
S&P’s base case sees gold averaging US$4,247 per ounce in 2026, with upside potential toward US$6,000 by 2027 in a more bullish scenario.
Copper tightness, nickel politics
Luiz Amaral from S&P’s exploration team said copper ended 2025 on strong footing, with London Metal Exchange (LME) prices reaching US$12,500 per metric ton in December.
Supply-side tightness, a weaker US dollar and copper’s growing role in electrification supported prices. The US decision to formally list copper as a critical mineral reinforced its strategic importance.
S&P has lifted its 2026 copper price forecast to US$11,400 per metric ton, projecting a 543,000 metric ton concentrate deficit next year. However, the refined market is expected to move into surplus later in the decade as new smelter capacity ramps up. Longer term, the concentrate picture darkens again.
“Our base case shows a 3 million metric ton shortfall by 2036,” Amaral said.
Nickel’s recent rally, by contrast, has been driven more by policy than fundamentals. The price broke above US$18,000 per metric ton in January after Indonesia reduced its 2026 production quota.
“The market is responding emotionally to policy updates,” Amaral said, noting that despite the rally, the broader market remains in surplus and LME inventories are building.
Lithium rebounds amid persistent surplus
Lithium prices have also staged a sharp rebound, rising 57 percent in China between mid-December and mid-January on renewed demand optimism and supply concerns. Yet S&P expects the market to remain oversupplied for most of the decade, with deficits not emerging until the early 2030s.
New supply from Australia, Latin America and China continues to outpace demand growth, even as electric vehicles account for roughly 75 percent of lithium consumption through 2035.
Diverging margins
At the mine level, gold producers are enjoying some of the strongest margins in years, with prices rising faster than all-in sustaining costs. Silver has outperformed even more dramatically, climbing 154 percent in 2025 versus gold’s 71 percent gain, compressing the gold-silver ratio to below 70.
Battery metals face a tougher backdrop.
“Lithium and nickel continue to face margin pressure as prices lag elevated costs amid oversupply,” said Monica Ramirez from S&P’s mine economics and emissions team.
Across 12 metals analyzed, S&P sees a structurally higher cost environment emerging due to inflation, energy expenses and maturing ore bodies. Precious metals retain the strongest buffers, while copper remains positive but increasingly sensitive at the upper end of the cost curve.
Exploration at a crossroads
Despite record prices in some commodities, exploration spending tells a more cautious story.
Global exploration budgets totaled US$12.4 billion in 2025, down 1 percent year-on-year. Adjusted for inflation, spending has slipped back to levels last seen nearly two decades ago.
“Gold continues to dominate,” Amaral said, accounting for roughly half of global exploration budgets. Lithium, once a standout, saw budgets fall nearly 50 percent amid weaker prices.
More concerning is the structural shift away from grassroots exploration.
In the mid-1990s, two-thirds of spending targeted generative programs. Today, that share has fallen to a record low as companies prioritize near-mine and late-stage work.
“We are underinvesting at the very front end of the supply chain,” Amaral warned. Without renewed grassroots spending, the long-term discovery pipeline could suffer.
M&A: Quality over quantity
Mining M&A remained active into late 2025, though deal value normalized after earlier mega-mergers. Transaction value fell 45 percent quarter-on-quarter to US$16.1 billion, but deal count rose to its highest level in more than five years.
Gold led activity, with buyers focusing on large-scale, long-life assets in low-risk jurisdictions.
“Gold M&A today is no longer about simple volume growth,” Ramirez emphasized to viewers. “It’s about asset quality, jurisdictional safety and durable cashflow.”
As the webinar made clear, mining is navigating a landscape defined by geopolitical risk, tighter capital and structural cost pressures. For companies able to secure high-quality assets and control costs, opportunities remain, but the margin for error is narrowing.
Securities Disclosure: I, Georgia Williams, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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