Subscribe to Wallace Roundtable on iTunes
Copper’s centrality to the new economy makes it potentially destabilizing as countries scramble for more supply, said Robert Friedland who gave opening remarks at the CRU conference this past week.
On Friday editor Neils Christensen, Wallace correspondent Paul Harris and mining audiences manager Michael McCrae recorded a podcast with guest Ryan King, Vice President Corporate Development at Calibre Mining. The panelists discussed gold and inflation, as well as rising commodity prices due to energy transition and metals needed to build future infrastructure. The group noted Friedland’s remarks, as well as the copper note published by Goldman Sachs.
On Tuesday Friedland gave the keynote at the CRU World Copper Conference. He is advancing his massive tier-one Kamoa copper mine in the DRC set to officially open this year.
Copper will be key to the energy transition as countries build more electric vehicles powered by renewable energy. Under-investment and lack of tier one mines makes copper a potentially destabilizing force as countries classify certain metals as strategic. At the conference Friedland said copper is a “national security issue.”
Goldman Sachs also plumped for copper this week. Analysts at Goldman declared the metal “the new oil” and predicted that the copper price would reach $6.80 per pound by 2025.
Copper was up about 3% for the week, and as of Friday June copper futures were $4.17 per lb.
In February copper hit a multi-year high.
Calibre Mining operates the El Limon and La Libertad gold mines in Nicaragua. 2021 gold production is expected to be between 170,000 – 180,000 ounces.
The Roundtable also reprised David Lin’s interview with Kai Hoffmann, CEO at Soar Financial. Although sentiment for gold is weaker than it was last year, most recently, more investment capital has been flowing into the gold mining sector as compared to other metals, said Hoffmann.
“The last few months, and the last few weeks, in particular as well…the buzzword has been sector rotation. We’ve also seen that in mining as we’ve seen more copper financings, or base metals financings, and also more uranium financings as well that have taken the limelight a bit from the gold and precious metals space,” Hoffmann told Lin.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Wallace Precious Metals The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Wallace Precious Metals nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Wallace Precious Metals and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
