Chile ’s temblor causes spike in copper price, advantage for Lao copper miners
(KPL) Laos, a producer of copper, with ‘miles and miles of copper deposits’ had been enjoying the sharp price increase of this metal because of the 8.8 magnitude temblor in Chile, the world’s number one producer of this metal.
On March 1 the price of copper reached USD 7,550 per ton but before this earthquake the price was hovering around USD 6,000 tonnes. This was because the world was concerned about the steady flow of this metal and this caused its price to skyrocket.
Chile ’s deadly earthquake and ensuing tsunamis wrecked hundreds of thousands of houses. Amid such wreckage, looters emerged and had been active, they targeted supermarkets and even set fire to them. This and other problems led the Chilean government to appeal to the international community for assistance.
In the midst of the turmoil in the country, Chile’s state copper mine, Codelco, had been working hard to resume production, but its rival Anglo-American PLagio ramped up production to take advantage of the sudden price increase.
However, most of Chile’s copper deposits and port facilities were located in the northern half of the country and they had not reported any damage.
According to Mr Richard Taylor, media relations manager of Minmetals, the Chinese miner, based in Sepon, Laos, the inventories or stockpiles of this metal had been high and he felt that the present spike in the price was not due to the shortage of this metal but that the temblor had made the buyers and sellers of this metal nervous. Speaking to KPL News last week, he added that China, the great buyer of copper, had been taking steps to cool its economy and this would moderate this metal’s price.
Looking into the future, he said he would be optimistic on the price of this metal as there were few operational copper mines in the world and few copper mines were being developed. Copper is being mined in Sepon, Savannakhet province, by Minmetals, by means of the open pit method. This location had a vast reserve of this metal, estimated at 792,000 tonnes.
