Copper is still a metal for the future https://www.kitco.com/news/2014-03-07/KitcoNewsMarketNuggets-March-7.html
SocGen: Copper Supply Challenge Is Economically Viable Deposits
March 7, 2014
Copper-supply issues could resurface in a few years despite an abundance of un-mined copper in the world, says Societe Generale. The bank cites a report from the U.S. Geological Survey estimating that there are still massive undiscovered copper resources. However, there a challenge in extracting ore at an economically viable costs, Societe Generale says, citing falling ore grades, taxes and royalties, operational costs and more. “We continue to believe that over the longer term and given the time required to bring a project from the exploration stage through into production, a prolonged period of underinvestment will again lead to a supply lag by 2016-17 and onwards,” Societe Generale says. “Given increasing urbanization in developing economies driving strong demand growth, we believe that the longer-term outlook for copper continues to be underpinned by structural challenges on the supply side - namely a scarcity of advanced high-quality development opportunities, while grades are declining at existing operations….we expect prices will need to remain high enough to induce the development of lower grade, higher-cost supply.”