Throughout 2017, industrial materials and commodities surged when regarding demand. Now, the CEO of Freeport-Mcmoran was recently on the record saying how difficult it is for companies to discover copper.
Even though Richard Adkerson (Freeport-Mcmoran) company owns three of the largest copper deposits in the world, he stressed at BMO’s capital markets conference in Florida last month that new copper discoveries are extremely difficult to find.
Interestingly enough, the median age for 2017 ’s top 10 copper mines is 95 years (production). Presently the largest ten copper deposits comprise nearly 25% of the annual output, and at today’s prices, the reserves on these projects are valued at more than 1.4 trillion. In 2017, these mines earned more than 30 billion last year.
Alongside the demand from economies increasing infrastructure spending, Ivanhoe Mines chairman raised a solid point saying another catalyst for copper in 2018 is the ongoing labor negotiations for the world’s largest copper producer (Chile) which could cause global supply disruptions.
