London, June 20, 2026, 17:06 BST
- Antofagasta shares ended Friday at 3,912 pence, falling 6.16%. The stock finished the week down roughly 3.3%.
- FTSE 100 dropped 1% for the week. Anglo American and Rio Tinto both slipped 2.6% on Friday.
- Antofagasta is sticking with its 2026 copper output target of 650,000–700,000 tonnes. The company will report second-quarter production figures on July 15.
London trading was shut for the weekend, leaving Antofagasta’s late-week slide as the last word for investors. Shares in the Chile-focused copper miner dropped 6.2% to 3,912 pence on Friday. That wiped out the 6.1% gain from Monday and put the price under last week’s 4,044-pence close.
Copper slipped, but shares saw sharper moves. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange settled near $13,600 a tonne, off about 0.6% from Thursday. No fresh company news landed with the share-price move. The gap shows investors were pulling back from copper stocks harder than the metal drop alone suggested.
Europe’s mining stocks fell across the board, not just Antofagasta. The region’s mining index slid 2.1% as metals prices fell. Reuters called Antofagasta one of London’s hardest-hit miners of the session. Anglo American and Rio Tinto both ended off roughly 2.6%. Glencore was down 1.6%.
Copper is still attracting bullish bets even after Friday’s pullback. Money managers were net long over 71,000 CME copper contracts as of mid-June. London options through December leaned hard to calls, letting holders buy if prices rise. That kind of positioning can swing mining stocks sharply when sentiment shifts.
New commercial news came through. Shanghai Metals Market, citing market sources, said Antofagasta is looking to tie some concentrate contracts with Chinese smelters to spot-market treatment and refining charge indices instead of sticking to a fixed annual benchmark. Treatment and refining charges—TC/RCs—are the fees for processing copper ore.
Indexation may give Antofagasta an edge as copper concentrate supply stays tight. Spot charges are now well below zero, which has put more power in the hands of miners. An indexed contract would follow the market faster than a fixed annual rate. That would change pricing but not output for now. There’s been a reported proposal, but so far, nothing quantified for earnings.
Antofagasta’s production test is still to come. The company turned out 143,000 tonnes of copper in the first quarter, down 7.6% year-on-year after lower processing rates and grades. Net cash costs dropped 30% to $1.08 per pound, as stronger by-product credits from gold and molybdenum helped. Antofagasta kept its annual output and $3.4 billion capital spending targets unchanged.
Antofagasta CEO Iván Arriagada told investors in April, “We expect copper production to increase quarter-on-quarter,” citing better grades and processing rates at Los Pelambres. The company’s July 15 production report will indicate if the recovery started in the second quarter. Antofagasta
The risks are hard to ignore. If copper keeps falling, revenue forecasts take a hit. Delays on the promised production rebound leave guidance exposed, and investors could get jittery. Unstable energy costs are also in play. The oil-supply threat isn’t off the table with fresh tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, pointing to pricier fuel and shipping for miners.
Antofagasta shares may move with copper prices, the dollar, and risk sentiment for miners when markets open Monday. The drop on Friday didn’t stem from any reported operating problem. After copper’s rally, investors now expect both higher production and steady metals prices.
