Supply constraints boost long-term copper projections

Subject Copper market outlook. Significance The combination of solid Chinese growth and the weak dollar drove the copper price 32% higher in 2017 and the metal has held on to its gains this year, oscillating around 7,000 dollars per tonne. Global consumption has been falling in recent months, and major customers have been paying lower premiums over benchmark prices to secure long-term contracts. This downward pressure on the price has been offset by supply concerns as the leading mines struggle to replace reserves. This leads miners towards lower grades, where they must process higher volumes of material, raising costs. Impacts Adding to near-term supply constraints, First Quantum will expand its Cobre Panama project by 15% but delay initial output to after 2018. Boosting supply, Peru is set to allow the Tia Maria project, recognising Southern Copper’s efforts to solve its legal dispute. Rio Tinto will negotiate a tax settlement with Mongolia after the company was hit with a 155-million-dollar bill for its Oyu Tolgoi mine.

The United States: From Greenbacks to Gold, 1862–79

This chapter surveys US currency policy from the Civil War until the country returned to the gold standard in 1879. It shows that economic interests played a major role in the politics of US currency policy in this period. In particular, they appear consistent with the idea that those most likely to benefit from a weak dollar—farmers producing tradable crops and manufacturers facing import competition—were strong supporters of either staying off the gold standard or going to a depreciated silver standard. There is no question that the data are of questionable quality, and the evaluations of the arguments are indirect. Nevertheless, the results seem consistent over a series of votes that took place over a period of about ten years. And they served as a precursor to an even more striking and much better-known US debate over the gold standard in the 1890s.