Copper prices set fresh records above $12,000/t in London and $5.60/lb in Chicago in 2025, amid outages at Grasberg, El Teniente, Kamoa-Kakula, Quebrada Blanca II and Cobre Panamá, and mounting geopolitical friction over US tariffs and Chinese processing dominance (53.1% of global capacity). Analysts are split, with Goldman Sachs seeing a 160 kt surplus capping 2026 prices at $10,000–$11,000/t, while Bank of America and BloombergNEF project spikes to $15,000/t and a 19 Mt structural deficit by 2050. Technically significant stories include Freeport’s 400 kt sulfide leach push at Morenci, the stalled deep-shaft Resolution Copper project in Arizona, and the proposed $53 billion Anglo–Teck merger that could create a copper complex larger than Escondida’s 1.28 Mt/y output.

Super Copper’s Cordillera Cobre project in Chile’s Atacama copper belt has secured approval for 26 exploitation concessions from Sernageomin, covering about 6,858 hectares and granting full, permanent mining rights once registration in the Copiapó Mining Registry is complete. The company reports 25 concessions already have formal court resolutions and 15 have legal extracts published in the Official Mining Gazette, with title registration now in progress. CEO Zachary Dolesky says this clears the way to submit a drill programme as soon as results from the latest exploration work are finalised.

Gold rose to a record $4,524.68/oz in early Wednesday trading before easing towards $4,450, capping a year-to-date gain above 70% driven by central bank buying, ETF inflows and safe-haven demand linked to Venezuela tensions and expected US rate cuts. Silver hit an all-time high of $72.70/oz, up more than 150% this year after an October short squeeze and ongoing supply dislocations that have left large inventories concentrated in New York pending a US Commerce Department critical-minerals probe. Platinum climbed past $2,300/oz for the first time in the Bloomberg series, extending a 10-session rally on tight supply and high borrowing costs.