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  • Night shot of BHP’s Escondida Mine in Chile, one of the largest copper mines.

    Demand and deficit drive up copper price

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 5, 2024

    BHP projects copper demand to rise by 1 million tons annually, lining pockets with high prices, but will a short-term deficit hurt mining in the long run? Copper has enjoyed rising prices since 2020, all while miners face rising operating costs and declining ore quality. With new mine construction requiring at minimum a capital-intensive ten-year commitment and existing operations in key copper-producing countries – Latin America, Australia, and Africa – aging, the gre...

  • Mine worker in hard hat, leaning against underground equipment.

    Russian PGM dump leads to US miner layoffs

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 5, 2024

    Sibanye-Stillwater gives notice to hundreds of Montana miners as palladium prices collapse. Sibanye-Stillwater, the only platinum and palladium mine in the United States, gave employees a 60-day notice of upcoming layoffs – blaming a loss of more than $350 million since the beginning of 2023 and plummeting metal pricing due to predatory Russian price dumping. The South Africa-based miner expanded in the U.S. through the purchase of Stillwater Mining Company in 2017 for $2.2 b...

  • Man walking a long corridor between computer banks.

    AI is eating up copper supplies twice over

    K. Warner, Metal Tech News|Updated Oct 7, 2024

    Building and powering the infrastructure AI requires to operate has already consumed double the gigawatts and may soon tax copper resources exponentially. The need for copper is steadily growing as worldwide urbanization spreads and global superpowers rush to electrify their transportation and energy industries. In addition to physical expansion, the world is also invisibly run on data centers that require vast amounts of copper for both their construction and operation. Hospi... Full story

  • Researcher holding a spoon of graphite battery anode material.

    Fastmarkets launches graphite price scale

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Oct 7, 2024

    New U.S. benchmark to boost market transparency, supporting battery supply chain growth. With lithium batteries forecast to power a sixfold surge in United States graphite demand by 2034, Fastmarkets has launched a new price assessment that aims to provide greater transparency and reliability benchmarks to manufacturers, producers, and investors involved in U.S. graphite. Established over 150 years ago, England-based Fastmarkets has built a reputation for delivering reliable... Full story