LONDON, June 27, 2026, 23:02 BST
- Antofagasta finished Friday at 3,825p. Shares rose 0.84% on the day. For the week, the stock fell 2.2%.
- The stock moved in a 418p intraday range for the week, which is about 10.7% of where it closed last Friday.
- Copper inventories at the LME dropped 4.5% for the week ending June 26. Cash copper eased 1.8% in the same period.
- Q1 net cash costs were under full-year guidance as credits from gold and molybdenum doubled.
London’s cash market stayed closed on Saturday. The London Stock Exchange runs from 0800 to 1630 on weekdays. Antofagasta’s next test on the cash side comes Monday, following a week where its shares outpaced the metal.
Antofagasta finished Friday at 3,825p, up 32p on the day. Shares moved in a range from 3,684p to 3,825p. Over the week, the stock dropped from 3,912p. Monday’s high hit 3,997p, while Wednesday saw a low at 3,579p. Volume on Friday was 810,550 shares, a fraction of last week’s 5.94 million shares traded on Friday’s selloff.
Copper held up differently. LME cash copper dropped 1.8% to $13,287 a tonne on June 26, down from $13,530.50 on June 19. Inventories also slipped by 15,675 tonnes to 336,475 tonnes. Antofagasta’s share move doesn’t track copper prices neatly here—it’s trading as a bet on whether the miner can hit targets and manage costs.
Costs are in focus. Antofagasta turned out 143,000 tonnes of copper in Q1, so it will have to hit between 169,000 and 186,000 tonnes each quarter for the rest of the year to land inside its 650,000-700,000 tonne guidance. Gross cash costs came in at $2.77 a pound, above the $2.30-$2.50 target for the year, but net cash costs were $1.08, lower than the $1.15-$1.35 guide, helped by by-product credits that jumped 104% to $1.69 a pound. CEO Iván Arriagada called it “another strong quarter of cash cost performance” and said output should pick up, “supported by higher ore processing rates and improving grades.” Antofagasta
Gold and molybdenum aren’t just minor byproducts here. Los Pelambres turns out copper concentrate that has gold and silver, plus separate molybdenum concentrate. Centinela puts out copper concentrate with gold and silver too, and makes both molybdenum concentrate and copper cathodes.
Copper smelters are feeling the squeeze after spot processing charges dropped below zero and smelters started paying miners for concentrate, Reuters said June 26. The move is putting financial pressure on smelters across the copper chain. For Antofagasta, which sells concentrate, squeezed smelters can lift netbacks even as mine costs remain high.
Antofagasta closed at £38.25 on the London Stock Exchange, 2.2% under its 50-day moving average of £39.12. Shares are still well above the 200-day average of £33.73, up 13.4%. The stock lost 2.2% for the week and lagged the FTSE 350 by 3.4 points. Despite the weekly drop, Antofagasta is up 16.7% year-to-date and has jumped 109.3% in the last 52 weeks.
Antofagasta still finds backing from last year’s profits. The miner posted 2025 EBITDA at $5.2 billion, up 52%, with revenue of $8.6 billion. Capital spending reached $3.7 billion, the dividend moved to 64.6 cents a share, and Arriagada said big projects at Centinela and Los Pelambres were “on time and on budget.” Antofagasta
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said earlier this year that “a peak in capex and expected increases in output could boost profits,” but noted the shares don’t look cheap after more than doubling. That sets up next week: copper is a help, but the stock needs proof that Q1 volumes marked the bottom, instead of hinting at worse for the year. AJ Bell
If the stock closes back above £39.12, the 50-day average slips under shares again. A move to 3,579p brings the focus back on production catch-up and questions about whether by-product credits will keep carrying things after Friday’s thin rebound volume.
