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Copper set a record on the Comex on Wednesday as a tame US inflation reading eased the threat of higher interest rates and a physical shortage in London pushed the premium on immediate delivery to its widest of the year.
Copper for September delivery touched $6.7140 a pound ($14,802 a tonne) in New York, clearing the $6.7045 record set on August 5, before easing back to $6.6335 to trade little changed on the day. The December contract reached $6.8070 and copper for delivery in September 2027 changed hands at $7.0280 a pound.
Cash copper on the London Metal Exchange settled at $14,424.50 a tonne on Tuesday, a premium of $207.50 over the three-month contract at $14,217.00, with buyers paying up for metal now rather than later. That backwardation is the widest of 2026, up from $138 the day before and $34 at the end of July. LME warehouse stocks have fallen to 214,550 tonnes, a drop of more than 35,000 tonnes, or 14%, since the end of July. Comex copper is trading around $14,625 a tonne, some $400 above the London three-month price.
Chile lowered its copper production forecast for a second straight quarter on Tuesday as output weakened at some of its biggest mines, and the Gresik smelter in Indonesia that treats ore from Grasberg is still down after a boiler leak on August 8.
Sleeping giants
Bougainville’s autonomous government has cleared India’s Lloyds Metals & Energy to carry out preparatory and feasibility work at Panguna, the Papua New Guinea mine shut since 1989 after protests over environmental damage and revenue sharing grew into a civil war that killed as many as 20,000 people. Remaining reserves are put at 5.3 million tonnes of copper and 19.3 million ounces of gold, worth roughly $160 billion at current prices.
Lloyds, an iron ore producer that had already signalled its interest in the asset, beat China’s CMOC Group to the role of development partner after Bougainville turned down a Chinese partner for the project it hopes will fund independence. Construction and production need separate approvals, and managing director Rajesh Gupta told an earnings call on Tuesday that the project is “still under study”.
SM Investments, controlled by the family of the late Philippine billionaire Henry Sy, will transfer its 34% stake in Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development to Dominion Holdings by next year and may fold in Tampakan, the country’s largest copper and gold deposit, creating what would be the Philippines’ biggest listed miner. Tampakan is due to start up in 2028, two years later than previously targeted, and to average 375,000 tonnes of copper and 360,000 ounces of gold in concentrate a year over 17 years. Dominion shares have risen 821% in 2026 against a 5.2% gain for the Philippine benchmark index.
Sweden’s government rejected two appeals against Boliden’s mining concession at Laver on Wednesday, clearing the way for the company to apply for an environmental permit at a deposit holding 849.5 million tonnes grading 0.24% copper, or roughly 2 million tonnes of contained metal. Boliden says Laver could double Swedish copper output and lift Europe’s self-sufficiency in the metal by about a tenth. The concession also covers gold, silver and molybdenum.
“While many steps remain before an investment decision can be made and mining operations can begin, we strongly believe in the Laver deposit’s potential to significantly increase Europe’s self-sufficiency within copper,” said Boliden Mines president Stefan Romedahl. The concession was granted by Sweden’s chief mining inspector in September 2025 and has been under appeal since.
Miners lag the gold trade
Ivanhoe Mines has gained 18% since the end of July and First Quantum Minerals 14%, against a 2.5% rise in the metal, while Teck Resources is up 11%, Freeport-McMoRan 10% and Anglo American 10%. Zijin Mining has added 9%, Jiangxi Copper 8%, Antofagasta 7%, Southern Copper 7%, BHP 7% and Lundin Mining 6%. Vale is down 4% for the month, and CMOC dropped 5.2% in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Gold producers have run two and three times as far over the same eight sessions.
Copper is up about 18% in 2026 and has gained 47% in 12 months.
(With files from Bloomberg)
