Hudbay Minerals is the easiest copper name to own: US-listed, liquid, with mostly North American assets, production growth and pure copper exposure. It is taking out its January highs. x.comÂ
Arrakis Global
Global Thematic Fund Manager
Hudbay Minerals may be one of the most overlooked copper names. It posts record EBITDA and cash flow on strong copper and gold production, and benefits from demand tied to AI, data centers, EVs and grid infrastructure. The stock is setting up to break out of a 20-year base. x.com x.comÂ
Copper will follow the AI trade lower, making it a good catch-up short. x.comÂ
Copper is one of the clearest trades over the next three years because supply is worse than most realize while AI accelerates demand. Chile, about a quarter of global production, just hit a nine-year production low, and copper miners have held up far better than silver and gold. Deutsche Bank forecasts copper soaring 50% to $22,050 a ton. x.comÂ
Copper is a forgotten bottleneck of AI and is breaking out, which sets up copper miners to run. The names include giants Freeport-McMoRan, Southern Copper and Teck; growth producers Hudbay, Ero Copper and Lundin Mining; next-generation developers Ivanhoe Mines and NGEx Minerals; high-beta Taseko Mines; and the Global X Copper Miners ETF. x.comÂ
Freeport-McMoRan is an excellent way to capture a structural commodities bull market. Goldman Sachs, in its first Buy rating, calls it the best exposure to a structural copper shortage, plus gold. Per Goldman, electrification lifts copper demand 2.1% a year to 2030 while falling ore grades raise costs. Grasberg's gold by-product and US leaching at about $1 a pound, aiming for 800 million pounds a year by 2030, could lift EBITDA margins above 50% and fund $19 billion-plus of free cash flow. x.comÂ
Copper miners stand to gain as the massive AI infrastructure buildout drives copper demand sharply higher through 2027, continuously pushing prices up; now is an excellent buying opportunity. LME copper topped $14,000/ton and COMEX $6.65/lb on rebounding Chinese demand, tight Middle East sulfur supply and AI data-center power needs. A 350,000-ton global shortfall is projected for 2026, and miners offer 2-3x leverage to copper price moves. x.comÂ
Freeport-McMoRan and Southern Copper own the real AI bottleneck, copper, a link almost no one is pricing yet. AI data centers are wrapped in copper wire, EVs need 2-3x the copper of gas cars, and every grid upgrade needs it; per S&P Global, demand nearly doubles by 2035. Supply can't respond fast: a US mine takes 29 years from discovery to production, and only three major US mines have opened since 2002. Freeport is the liquid bellwether; Southern Copper is the lowest-cost producer. x.com x.com … Show more
Copper keeps setting all-time highs, now $6.65 a pound, on rising demand and an increasingly tight supply backdrop. Two of the world's most important copper miners, Freeport-McMoRan and Ivanhoe, have both cut ramp-up expectations for Grasberg and Kamoa-Kakula, respectively. x.comÂ
Copper miners stand to benefit from a massive undersupply of copper right now, making the copper miners ETF a candidate for selling puts. x.comÂ
Southern Copper sits at the bottom of the global copper cost curve, which has kept it profitable through every downturn. Byproduct sales of molybdenum, zinc and silver from the same ore cut its net cost to 5 cents a pound last quarter. Over 21 years its worst net margin was +12.7%, while Freeport-McMoRan's was -82.7% in 2015; when prices fall, higher-cost mines slip into losses while Southern Copper stays above the line. x.com x.comÂ