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First Quantum's expanded Zambia copper mine on track to exceed processing target Published on 10/21/2026 at 05:34 am EDT or by email * Stock Market * Stock Market News * First Quantum's expanded Zambia copper mine on track to exceed processing target

Copper price closes in on new record as Shanghai, London warehouses empty out. Copper climbed for a sixth straight session on Tuesday, its longest winning streak in four months, as Chinese buyers stocked up ahead of next week's holidays and shrinking inventories in Shanghai and London pointed to a physical market that is running short of metal. Comex copper for December delivery, the most active contract, rose as much as 1.6% to $6.8710 a pound in New York and was trading at $6.8370 (about $15,070 a tonne) by late morning, up 1.1% on the day and within a stone's throw of the record settlement of $6.8885 set on September 9, the day before a Reuters report that the White House tariff plan had stalled knocked more than 5% off the price. Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.7% to $14,766 a tonne by mid-afternoon in London, within 1% of the $14,875 peak of September 10, keeping the premium for New York copper at more than $300 a tonne. The most-traded contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained 1.2% to 111,320 yuan ($16,616) a tonne. Copper stocks in SHFE warehouses have slid 70% since early June, and cathode inventories in Shanghai, the main trading and consumption hub, fell to 43,900 tonnes last week, the lowest since 2023, according to Shanghai Metals Market. Imported metal that has arrived in the country has gone straight to fabricators rather than into warehouses, SMM said, and the Yangshan premium paid for delivered copper finished last week at its highest in nearly four years. "Copper is finding support from tightening physical market conditions in China," Ewa Manthey, commodities strategist at ING, told Reuters, with falling inventories, seasonal restocking and constrained spot availability offsetting the uncertainty over US tariffs. "Chinese are buying ahead of holidays and smelter shutdowns," said Sandeep Daga, head of research at Metal Intelligence Centre. The country's markets close from September 25 to 27 and again from October 1 to 7. London runs short. Cash copper settled at a $62 a tonne premium to the three-month contract on Monday, up from $26 a session earlier and a discount of $86 a week ago, a backwardation that signals buyers cannot wait for delivery. Cancelled warrants, metal already booked for withdrawal from LME warehouses, climbed by a further 6,700 tonnes to 122,150 tonnes on Tuesday, or 48% of the 255,100 tonnes on warrant, leaving 133,725 tonnes actually available to the market. In contrast, Comex warehouses hold 696,204 tonnes, some 69% of all exchange-monitored copper, after importers rushed metal in ahead of tariffs that Washington has yet to impose. That pile is no longer growing: stocks slipped last week for the first time since April, according to The Copper Journal, and with storage at the Port of New Orleans, the main Comex delivery hub, largely full and another 100,000 tonnes of African and South American copper due over September and October, the US is fast running out of room to absorb more. Not everyone is convinced the rally has further to run. "I think it's a little bit inflated up here. If it gets any higher, I think a lot of the producers in China are going to start selling because they're not convinced it's going to stay this high," Robert Montefusco at broker Sucden Financial told Reuters. Bloomberg Intelligence's Mike McGlone warned last week that a broader market correction could take 20% to 30% off the copper price. Traders are also waiting on the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week for signals on trade and the health of the world's two largest economies. The Federal Reserve's quarter-point hike last week, its first since 2023, and the prospect of more to come remain the main drag on industrial metals. Miners claw back some September losses. Copper producers rose with the metal on Tuesday, extending a week of gains that has repaired some of the damage from the sell-off that followed the September 10 peak. Freeport-McMoRan, the largest listed copper producer, climbed 1.8% to $73.48 in New York by late morning, lifting its market value to $105.5 billion and trimming its loss for September to 3%. The Phoenix-based company's Grasberg troubles in Indonesia, together with Ivanhoe Mines' output cut at Kamoa-Kakula in Congo, have removed some 600,000 tonnes from this year's expected global supply and could see mined copper output fall in 2026 for the first time since 2017, Sprott Asset Management said last week. Southern Copper added 1.8% to a market value of $170.2 billion, extending the Mexican company's lead over Rio Tinto, worth $164.3 billion after a 0.5% dip, for second place in the MINING.COM ranking of the world's most valuable miners. Southern Copper has gained 6.5% over the past week but remains 3.5% lower for the month. First Quantum Minerals rose 3.1% in Toronto to a value of $27.5 billion, taking its advance over the past week to more than 11%, the best of the large copper producers, after securing a UK patent for its trolley-assist haulage system. Lundin Mining gained 2.6% to $21.6 billion and is up 10.5% over the week, and Ivanhoe Mines, which fell out of the Top 50 after the Kamoa-Kakula downgrade, climbed 2.7% to a valuation of $12.9 billion. Teck Resources rose 1.2% in New York, valuing the Vancouver-based company at $33.2 billion as it waits on Chinese approval for its $53 billion merger with Anglo American, which added 1.3% in US trading. Glencore, a 44% partner at Collahuasi, stands between the combined group and $1.4 billion a year of copper synergies from integrating the mine with Teck's Quebrada Blanca. Antofagasta gained 2.8% in over-the-counter trading in New York to a value of $51.1 billion, up 8% over the past week even after cutting its 2026 guidance following Chile's winter storms, and Poland's KGHM added 2%. The diversified majors lagged. Glencore's US-listed shares slipped 0.7%, leaving the Swiss company worth $84.5 billion and down 10% for the month as the fallout from its dealings with iron ore trader Radiant World continues, while BHP, valued at $220.9 billion, edged up 0.4% and is still 8% lower in September after output at its Escondida mine in Chile slumped 22% in July. Comex copper is up 21% in 2026 and less than 1% below its record settlement.

Capstone Copper shares slide 8.6% amid broader mining sector pullback this week as copper prices stall. The copper producer's shares declined amid surging oil prices, rising bond yields and broader weakness across global mining and materials stocks. Published 09/11/26 AT 12:23 PM AEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Shares of Capstone Copper Corp. fell $1.36, or 8.56%, to $14.53, as the mid-tier copper producer pulled back sharply alongside a broader retreat across mining and materials stocks amid a volatile week for global markets driven by surging oil prices and rising bond yields tied to escalating Middle East tensions. Friday's decline comes despite Capstone Copper's continued strong operational and financial performance throughout 2026. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $739.65 million, comfortably beating the consensus analyst estimate of $709.62 million, according to Google Finance, reflecting continued strength in the company's underlying copper production and sales during the period. Capstone Copper, founded in 1987 and headquartered in Vancouver, operates a portfolio of copper mines spanning the Americas, including the Mantoverde and Santo Domingo operations in Chile, the Pinto Valley mine in Arizona, and the Cozamin mine in Mexico. The company has provided full-year 2026 production guidance of between 200,000 and 230,000 tonnes of copper, according to Simply Wall St, reflecting largely stable output compared with the prior year as the company continues working through its broader portfolio of producing and development-stage assets. The company experienced a temporary operational setback at its flagship Mantoverde mine in Chile in late August, when one of two ball mill electrical drive motors failed at the site. According to Simply Wall St, the on-site team replaced the damaged motor with a spare unit, and sulphide copper production subsequently returned to full operating rates. Five days of previously planned maintenance remained scheduled to take place at the site toward the end of September. Beyond its existing operations, Capstone Copper has continued expanding its broader project pipeline through targeted acquisitions. In June, the company entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a 75% stake in the San Pietro copper project from New Golden Explorations Chile SpA for $25 million, with the consideration to be paid entirely through the issuance of Capstone Copper shares rather than cash. That transaction required approval from Capstone Copper shareholders at a special meeting held in mid-August, adding another development-stage copper asset to the company's already substantial portfolio across the Americas. Wall Street analyst sentiment toward Capstone Copper has remained broadly positive in recent months, even as the stock has experienced meaningful volatility. Stifel Nicolaus raised its price target on the stock to 17 Canadian dollars, while TD Securities separately raised its own target to 14 Canadian dollars, according to MarketBeat's compilation of recent analyst activity. TipRanks has separately noted a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of 14.50 Canadian dollars, with the platform's AI-driven Spark analysis characterizing the stock as an "Outperform" based on its underlying fundamentals. Not all recent trading activity around the stock has been uniformly positive. According to a report cited by MarketBeat, Orion Mine Finance was noted as a seller of Capstone Copper shares in recent trading, a development some analysts flagged as worth monitoring given the size and profile of that particular institutional shareholder, even though large institutional sales do not necessarily reflect a change in the underlying investment thesis for the stock. Friday's decline for Capstone Copper unfolded against a backdrop of broader weakness across global commodity and mining stocks tied to the week's dramatic market volatility. Oil prices surged sharply amid escalating conflict between the United States and Iran, with Brent crude climbing more than 7% at one point to above $108 a barrel, while global bond yields spiked in response to renewed inflation concerns. That combination of rising energy costs and higher borrowing costs has weighed broadly on resource and materials companies globally this week, given the sector's sensitivity to both input costs and the cost of capital needed to fund ongoing mine development and expansion projects. Copper prices specifically have shown notable volatility throughout the week, even as the metal had been trading near record highs in prior sessions amid strong demand tied to electrification trends, renewable energy infrastructure buildout and continued growth in data center construction globally. That underlying demand narrative for copper has remained largely intact even amid this week's broader market turbulence, suggesting Friday's decline in Capstone Copper shares likely reflects broader risk-off sentiment across equity markets rather than any fundamental deterioration in the company's own operational outlook or the underlying copper demand picture. Capstone Copper competes within a broader field of North American and international copper producers, including First Quantum Minerals, Hudbay Minerals, Ero Copper, Ivanhoe Mines and Amerigo Resources, among others, according to Yahoo Finance's compilation of comparable companies. The stock trades on both the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker CS and on U.S. over-the-counter markets, giving investors in both Canada and the United States direct access to the company's shares. With Capstone Copper's next quarterly earnings report expected in the coming weeks, investors are likely to continue watching closely for further updates on production levels across the company's Chilean, Arizona and Mexican operations, along with continued progress integrating the San Pietro acquisition into its broader development pipeline. Given the stock's demonstrated sensitivity to both company-specific operational updates and broader macroeconomic volatility tied to global commodity markets, Friday's sharp pullback appears most directly connected to the week's broader selloff across mining and materials stocks, driven by the combination of surging oil prices and rising global bond yields, rather than any specific negative development unique to Capstone Copper's own underlying business performance.