Copper: Humanity’s first and most important future metal
Millions of feet of copper wiring will be required for strengthening the world’s power grids, and hundreds of thousands of tonnes more are needed to build wind and solar farms.
Chilean miner Antofagasta said on Wednesday it expects full-year copper output at the lower end of its 670,000 to 710,000 metric ton guidance range, due to lower ore grades.
The London-listed company added net cash costs stood at $1.94 per pound in the first half of the year, 11% higher than the same period of 2023.
Antofagasta produced 284,700 metric tons of copper in the first half, down 3.7% from the same period in 2023, on lower grades at both of its main assets, Los Pelambres and Centinela.
The company, which operates four copper mines in Chile, left capital expenditure guidance for the year unchanged at $2.7 billion.
Copper is used in the power and construction industries and is widely expected to benefit from the green energy transition via additional demand from the electric vehicle sector and new applications including data centres for artificial intelligence.
(By Clara Denina; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Jamie Freed)
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