Just as the general holiday season concludes, prices for key metals and precious metals are gaining momentum. The gold price has already drawn attention by breaking out of its approximately three-month consolidation phase. The current all-time high of $3,499 per ounce is nearly reached and could soon be surpassed by a new one. Silver has also started a new upward trend, surpassing the $40.00 per troy ounce mark.
Copper is currently riding the coattails of the two precious metals. While it may not capture as much attention from private investors as gold and silver, as one of the most important industrial metals, it holds significant importance when multi-week consolidation phases are exited upwards and new upward trends begin.
This occurred at the start of the month, as the copper price on the London Metal Exchange surged to nearly $10,000 per ton, right at the beginning of the new trading week. Throughout the day, LME prices climbed by up to 0.3% to $9,928 per ton, with the August contract increasing by 3%.
COMEX futures, however, remained stable, with the most active contract at $4.598 per pound. This corresponds to a price of $10,137 per ton. It should be noted, however, that Monday was a holiday in the USA and Canada, so the observed prices could not carry the weight of a normal trading day.
Expectations of an Imminent US Interest Rate Cut Weaken the US Dollar and Boost Commodity Prices
With this surge, the copper price ended its four-week consolidation phase and is poised to continue its long-term upward trend. This is supported by stable copper demand from end-users and a weakening US dollar in the foreign exchange market, which drives up commodity prices. The US dollar is currently weighed down by investor expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its September meeting for the first time in a year.
While copper becomes cheaper for overseas buyers due to the weaker US dollar, demand for the red metal remains robust. China reports copper demand that has slightly cooled but remains relatively high. As Zijin Mining Group explained, visible copper consumption in China increased by about 10% in the first half of 2025.
Goldman Sachs Remains Cautious in the Short Term…
Analysts at US investment bank Goldman Sachs, however, warned that persistent weakness in Chinese economic data could continue to weigh on the sector. In the last week of August, the bank had predicted that the copper price on the LME would be around $9,700 per ton by year-end.
This forecast was reaffirmed, and Goldman Sachs’ pessimistic stance on aluminum remained unchanged. “General activity data in China appears to be weakening, and visible consumption growth of copper and aluminum has slowed in recent months, in line with our expectations,” Goldman Sachs stated in its August 29 announcement.
… Long-Term, However, there are Strong Arguments for Copper, its Producers, and Developers of New Copper Projects
If the copper price continues its upward trend in the remaining four months of the year, investor interest is likely to quickly rebound. This should then also boost the stock prices of major copper producers and smaller to medium-sized developers of copper projects. They are all still suffering from the ongoing investor reluctance, who are currently betting on a weakening economic development.
This viewpoint is understandable but also very short-sighted, as it overlooks the significant supply gap that copper will inevitably face in the coming years. For the industry, this gap is already palpable, as the development of new copper mines does not happen overnight. Especially for large mining projects, lead times of 15 to 20 years are to be expected.
However, the world no longer has this luxury of time, because due to weak metal prices in recent years, expenditures for the exploration of new deposits have been sharply reduced in the copper sector. And precisely at a time when the development of new projects should have been intensely pursued, virtually nothing, or at least not much, was done. For copper demand, this presents a very concerning mix in the medium to long term, as constant to growing demand meets an ever-decreasing supply.
Axo Copper, Nicola Mining, and American West Metals Benefit
The situation, however, is advantageous for copper producers and developers of new copper mines, such as Axo Copper (WKN A416BY), Nicola Mining (WKN A3D3LF), or American West Metals (WKN A3DE4Y). They are all vigorously advancing the development of their projects right now, knowing that their time will come precisely when the market awakens and investors and industrial consumers realize that a fierce price battle will erupt over the remaining available copper.
Those investors who position themselves now, well ahead of the general public, will particularly benefit massively from it. They are acquiring companies like Axo Copper, which have already demonstrated peak values of up to 7.4% copper over 7.6 meters at the La Huerta copper project in Jalisco, at prices one might only dream of later.
Entering the copper sector today – despite all risks, which should by no means be neglected – is comparable to entering the uranium sector between 2018 and 2020. Those who did so back then can now be sitting on high triple-digit profits, or perhaps have already realized them and long since reinvested in promising companies from the silver and copper sectors.
