It is getting harder and harder for copper mines to get construction permits, at the same time demand continues to increase, this will lead to higher copper prices going forward. The chart below shows how copper demand will develop coming years:
Grades are falling and are expected to continue to do so:
For companies with economic copper resources in the ground, like Geologix Explorations with the possibility of getting permits the situation is extremely bullish. According to Ross Beaty copper production has potentially already reached its peak (source):
Back in January 2005, Beaty mesmerized his audience at the Northwest Mining Association convention with his theory that the mining sector may be approaching a “Hubbert’s Peak” for copper production. Globally, economic copper resources were being depleted with the equivalent production of three world-class copper mines being consumed annually; meanwhile, copper demand was increasing by more than 575,000 tons annually and accelerating, he observed.
Beaty also forecast that smelter and refinery bottlenecks would slow copper supplies and keep copper prices high.
A geologist by training, Beaty also predicted during that NWMA talk that low-grade copper deposits would have to be developed internationally to keep up with the soaring demand for that metal. He predicted that copper prices would have to go even higher to make development of these types of deposits feasible.
