Copper Prices Soar Amid Worsening Supply Constraints

Copper prices have reached new records on both the London Metal Exchange (LME) and in New York, with three-month metal trading at $14,779 a ton and futures crossing $3.74 a pound.

The metal's surge is often attributed to US tariffs, but Frank Holmes, chief investment officer of U.S. Global Investors, argues that the market is signaling a deeper structural problem: a decline in major copper discoveries and difficulties bringing new deposits into production.

Copper demand is expected to rise with the expansion of AI data centers and electricity infrastructure, exacerbating supply constraints rather than tariff speculation.