Gold $GOLD is at all time high and Silver $SILVER prices are rising rapidly. These two metals are precious metals. Copper $COPPER has some of the same physical and chemical properties of Silver or Gold but it is, however, not considered a precious metal. Copper is a base metal and is the third most used metal in the world after Iron and Aluminum.
Gold is mostly used as a hedge and has very little industrial uses. Most of the gold mined is used to make jewelry, coins, bullions and bars. Silver has some of the same uses as gold but being the best electrical conductor, it is also used in electronics. Copper is more abundant than gold and silver and is, therefore, cheaper. It is the second best electrical conductor and is prefered to make wires. Copper is also used in construction.
Usually the price of gold and copper in the short-term moves in opposite direction since gold is a hedge and during recessions people prefer owning gold over other asset classes such as stocks or bonds. Copper is used in industries and during recessions, the demand for copper falls.
This time things are different since the Fed and other central banks have been printing so much money that this is creating monetary inflation, hence the price of gold will keep rising even after the recession and so will the price of Copper.
In the developing world, the demand for Copper will be increasing since there's going to be more construction and electrification.
In the developed world, the demand for copper will increase because of electric vehicles and renewable energies. An electric vehicle uses 4X more copper on average than an ICE vehicle. Since renewables have lower efficiency than fossil fuels, more turbines are needed, hence more copper. If you're interested in making money on EV or renewables, a copper miner might be a better investment than Tesla $TSLA .
Higher demand for copper doesn't mean higher copper prices is the supply of copper can meet the demand but in recent years, prices of Copper have been so low that the copper miners have been losing money and didn't invest much in capital expenditures. This can potentially lead to a supply gap, which will lead to higher copper prices.
I believe that the best way to have exposure to copper is through a copper miner and I already have Freeport-McMoran $FCX in my portfolio.
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