Copper: what mining investors should know

Ron Phillips is a seasoned mining investor who also works as a mining investment analyst. In his occasional blog he shares insider industry knowledge to highlight potential opportunities and areas of interest for fellow investors.

Copper is a highly conductive metal used in virtually all electric power transmission, heating and cooling, and smart technology. Copper’s versatility makes it one of the most highly sought-after minerals; mining companies and investors have never been more interested in its prospective profitability.

Unprecedented demand for this one-of-a-kind metal has made copper, never easy to find and extract, even more sought after by investors, and challenges to finding new sources of production abound. Easily located high grade deposits in accessible jurisdictions have already been mined out. Ron Phillips believes that today’s prospectors need to go farther afield or utilize new technologies to make previously non-economic deposits profitable.

Aside from being a key component in everyday items, copper is instrumental to developing sustainable energy sources. Renewable energy sources and electric vehicles utilize significantly more copper than equivalent fossil fuel power plants and vehicles. As a seasoned mining investor, Ron Phillips advises fellow investors to look at projected copper demand increases from decarbonization versus the small number of large new copper mines in development. Backed by solid research and due diligence, investments in attractive copper opportunities will serve investors well. There is no indication that copper will cease to be ubiquitous in our daily lives, which makes the exciting novel methods of mining that mining engineers and scientists are developing, techniques such as selective ore sorting, phytomining and agromining, even more inspiring.

Ron Phillips is the North America-based analyst for the Terra Capital Natural Resources Fund. Learn more about the mining industry on this page.