Copper prices in London increased by as much as 4.3% on Monday. up to 13 thousand $25 per ton. This has never happened before in history. Until April 2021, the price had not previously broken 10,000. dollars, and here after less than five years already over 13 thousand.
For comparison, let us say that the cost of mining a ton of copper in Poland by KGHM in the third quarter amounted to USD 6,922, i.e. after deducting the value of silver obtained from the ore during the production of refined copper. In Canada and the USA, this cost, after deducting the value of gold that accompanies the local ore, amounted to USD 2,293, and in Chile – only USD 2,160, also after deducting the value of gold and molybdenum.
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It is therefore not surprising that the shares of KGHM, a large global producer of both copper and silver, which increased in price by as much as 8% on Monday, reached historic highs on Monday. Fifteen minutes before the session closes went up by 4.6%, setting a historic intraday record of PLN 297.30.
This means that the market value of the company increased to PLN 59.5 billion. This is moved by KGHM third place among domestic companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, behind Orlen and PKO BP.
Why is copper more expensive?
The reasons for the increase in metal prices can be found in the eternal principle of supply and demand. The strike at the Mantoverde mine in Chile — not to be confused with KGHM's half-owned Sierra Gorda mine — is just the latest supply disruption at a time of growing global demand for copper, Bloomberg reports.
And copper is used almost everywhere, from data centers to car batteries.
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At the same time, the threat of US import tariffs on this raw material has caused traders to increase supplies to the US in recent weeks, which in turn has limited the availability of copper in other regions of the world – we read further.
Renewable energy sources fuel the increase in copper prices
Copper is a metal crucial for the energy transformation. Among other things, due to investments in renewable energy sources, prices increased by 42% in 2025, thus recording the best annual result since 2009. Another factor contributing to subsequent price records was tragic accident at the world's second largest copper mine in Indonesia and underground flood in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump's plan to reconsider the issue of tariffs on primary copper in 2026 has revived the so-called arbitrage trading, which has already caused quite a stir in the market.
“We estimate that the global refined copper market was in surplus in 2025, but metal and inventory flows were disrupted by US tariffs, resulting in a significant increase in imports to the US,” UBS Group AG analysts, including Daniel Major, wrote in a note on Monday, quoted by Bloomberg.
The decline in supply means there is a risk of reducing the availability of copper in other regions of the world. The price difference between spot and three-month contracts in London still clearly indicates the advantage of spot deliveries over forward prices, which indicates a tight supply situation in the short term.
The United States has about half of the world's copper ore reserves, while accounting for less than 10 percent. global demand – according to UBS data. One of the mines there is run by a Polish plant operated by the Canadian KGHM International. Robinson Mine in Nevada produced 56,000 in 2024. tons of payable copper, which was its record.
