Copper prices hit a high on Friday of just over $3 a pound and is a strong indicator that economic recovery is at hand as construction and technologies have increased their demands.
Copper prices on the Comex and LME CU are on the rise with other metals. As of October 23rd copper is at $3.019 a pound. This is up from $2.00 a pound last year which triggered a rash of layoffs in Arizona’s
Freeport/McMoRan Copper and Gold operations last year.
Freeport is now gearing back up, and it is says that it will re-open its Miami mine in Arizona, but it will not increase production in it’s Morenci and Safford mines which saw over 1,000 people laid off last year. The Morenic copper mine has been one of the top 3 copper producing mines in the world for decades.
Freeport/McMoran is the largest most traded mining stock in the world with operations in the U.S., Africa, India, and South America.
Over the last three months aluminum is up .71 percent, nickel is up .68 percent, zinc is up .89 percent, tin is up 1.83 percent, and copper is up 1.67 percent.
Copper is the big story with headlines from around the world like the Southern Times Africa, “Mines fail to fulfill global copper demand. Bloomberg, “Copper reaches One-Year-High, spurred by rising U.S. home sales. Rueters, “Economic Optimism lifts U.S. copper to 13-month peak. Bloomberg, “Copper in Shanghai best week in two months on China growth.”
This is good news for a lot of out of work miners in the U.S. and opens up the possibility of going back to work. The rise is copper prices is also an indicator that construction could start to see a slight come back putting out of work contractors back in the job game.
Copper is a critical component in almost everything we use today, from advanced technology to the construction industry. When demand goes up it signals a that building and buying trends are moving forward.
The critical role that copper plays in our everyday lives could very well be the canary in the mine as woke up and singing in an economic recovery is in the near future.
