While oil prices hog the headlines and gas only gets a mention when winter rolls around, a far more important metal has been quietly flying under the radar - copper. Once we look at the bigger picture, the scale of copper demand becomes hard to ignore. And yet it is copper, right now, that will decide how the whole "green energy" story ends.
An electric vehicle requires roughly 80 kilograms of copper, compared with around 20 kilograms in a conventional car. Solar panels, charging stations and new power transmission lines stretching across entire regions all require copper. Just a couple of days ago, Kirill Dmitriev, Russia's presidential envoy for investment and economic cooperation and head of the RDIF, wrote on his X account that copper's investment appeal has climbed to the level of gold.
In his view, "copper is becoming the new gold." The statement came against the backdrop of a sharp rise in copper prices. In mid-September, three-month copper futures on the London Metal Exchange (LME) climbed above $14,800 per metric ton. On Comex, the price rose to $6.9285 per pound, hitting an all-time high.
For that matter, copper has been on a tear for three years running. In the past year alone the metal has climbed 47%. On top of that, a large volume of copper was shipped into the United States this year in anticipation of President Donald Trump's decision to slap tariffs on imports of the metal.
That drew down copper stocks in the warehouses the London Metal Exchange tracks around the world. Buyers in China also stepped up their activity, sharpening the competition for supply. At the same time, ore at the old copper deposits is steadily running thin.
Prices are climbing even as the metal sits in surplus. By the reckoning of the International Copper Study Group (ICSG), world output of refined copper in the first five months of 2026 rose by about 3% year on year, to 12.05 million tonnes. Consumption over the same stretch grew 2.2%, to 11.58 million tonnes.
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