{"id":12934,"date":"2026-09-29T13:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T19:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/?p=12934"},"modified":"2026-09-29T13:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T19:22:09","slug":"copper-fever-sends-prices-soaring-and-challenges-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/copper-fever-sends-prices-soaring-and-challenges-gold\/minerals\/middlemennetwork\/","title":{"rendered":"Copper Fever Sends Prices Soaring and Challenges Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supply shortages and AI-driven demand have pushed the metal to record highs, as analysts debate whether it can rival gold as a safe haven.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Global markets are living through a wave of euphoria around copper. The metal has hit record highs on commodity exchanges and ranks among the most profitable assets of the year. Its rise has been so striking that it has reopened an unusual question: can an industrial metal challenge gold’s place in investors’ portfolios?<\/p>\n

A record that fuels the debate<\/h3>\n

Copper futures reached $14,748.5 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange (LME), the world’s main market for industrial metals. That figure is the metal’s all-time high.<\/p>\n

The timing of Kiril Dmitriev’s remarks did not go unnoticed. The CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and special presidential envoy for international economic cooperation said that “copper is the new gold,” a phrase that quickly circulated among analysts and traders.<\/p>\n

The contrast with the precious metal is striking. So far this year, copper has gained about 20%, after rising more than 41% in 2025. Gold, by contrast, has barely changed in price over the same period.<\/p>\n

A trend analysts see as far from exhausted<\/h3>\n

Early this year, a tonne of copper crossed the $13,000 barrier on the LME for the first time. It now holds above $14,400, and several experts believe the upward run is not over.<\/p>\n

Deutsche Bank analysts estimate that the current shortage could push prices up another 50%, to around $22,050 per tonne by mid-2027.<\/p>\n

Liudmila Rokotianskaya, a stock market specialist at investment firm BKS, shares that optimism. She notes that copper has become about 50% more expensive since September last year and argues that, given its growth potential, it can rightly be called “the new gold.”<\/p>\n

Vladimir Chernov, an analyst at Freedom Global, highlights two traits the red metal shares with the precious one: neither can quickly increase its supply, and both are priced globally in dollars.<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence and green energy enter the picture<\/h3>\n

Many specialists attribute copper’s new importance to the energy transition and the expansion of data centers required for artificial intelligence (AI). Both sectors consume large amounts of the metal and depend on a supply that cannot scale overnight.<\/p>\n

Canadian-American investor Chamath Palihapitiya even describes copper as a “national security asset.” He explains that mining needs more than two decades to expand capacity, while a single AI data center can require up to 50,000 tonnes. In his view, that gap, combined with tariff policies, could send prices to “absolutely parabolic” levels.<\/p>\n

American investor Michael Burry, for his part, has explained that he prefers to bet on copper rather than on AI company stocks. His reasoning rests on timelines: data centers raise demand within two to three years, but a new mine takes about 18 years to begin operating.<\/p>\n

The differences with the safe-haven asset<\/h3>\n

Not every expert is swept up in the enthusiasm. A group of analysts urges caution and warns against mistaking a market cycle for a change of status.<\/p>\n

J.P. Morgan analysts point out that copper is strictly an industrial metal and lacks gold’s monetary function. The global gold market is valued at nearly $30 trillion, and the yellow metal is an essential reserve asset for central banks, a role copper does not play.<\/p>\n

Chernov sums up the difference in terms of the reason for buying. Copper is bought mainly by companies for production, while gold is also bought to preserve value and protect capital, including by central banks.<\/p>\n

That contrast would show more clearly in a crisis. In an economic recession, the analyst notes, demand for copper could weaken while interest in gold as a safe haven would grow.<\/p>\n

A metal at the center of the debate<\/h3>\n

For now, copper is benefiting from an exceptional moment, with rigid supply, expanding technological demand and upward forecasts. Whether it can get close to gold as a safe-haven asset remains an open question. What does seem clear is that the red metal has stopped being a secondary player on the commodities board.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supply shortages and AI-driven demand have pushed the metal to record highs, as analysts debate whether it can rival gold as a safe haven.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,8,11,13],"tags":[315,1134,191,1213,1210,1065,929,30,1211,1209,1207,942,1208,1212],"class_list":["post-12934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commerce","category-economy","category-global","category-minerals","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-commodities","tag-copper","tag-data-centers","tag-deutsche-bank","tag-energy-transition","tag-gold","tag-investment","tag-j-p-morgan","tag-lme","tag-london-metal-exchange","tag-markets","tag-metals","tag-safe-haven-asset"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12936,"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12934\/revisions\/12936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/middlemen.network\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}