London, May 13, 2026, 17:01 BST
Antofagasta plc shares surged on Wednesday as copper’s rally pulled investors back into London-listed miners, with the Chile-focused producer closing up 8.7% at 4,299p after touching its session high at the bell. The move left the stock still below its 52-week high of 4,475p, but much closer than it was a week ago.
The timing matters. Copper has pushed back above $14,000 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange, close to the record set in January, as mine disruptions and tight supply again outweighed worries about demand. Bloomberg reported the metal touched $14,196.50 a ton on Wednesday, near its all-time high of $14,527.50.
For Antofagasta, a higher copper price is not just a market story. Mining is the group’s core business, and the company operates four copper mines in Chile, with by-products including gold and molybdenum. That makes the share price unusually sensitive to moves in the red metal.
The rally comes after a softer production start to the year. Antofagasta said last month that first-quarter copper output fell 7.6% year on year to 143,000 tonnes, while net cash costs — the cost of producing copper after credits from by-products — dropped 30% to $1.08 a pound. The company kept full-year copper production guidance unchanged at 650,000 to 700,000 tonnes.
Chief Executive Iván Arriagada said in that update that Antofagasta expected copper production to “increase quarter-on-quarter” as processing rates and grades improve at Los Pelambres. He also called copper’s medium-term fundamentals “compelling,” citing structural demand and constrained supply. Antofagasta
Peers rose too, though Antofagasta stood out as the cleaner copper play. Investing.com reported earlier on Wednesday that Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Glencore also gained as UK mining stocks moved higher, while copper futures settled around $14,158 a ton by mid-afternoon after an intraday push to $14,191.
Supply is the immediate pressure point. Mining.com, citing Bloomberg, reported that Comex copper futures hit a U.S. record at $6.69 a pound, helped by expectations of U.S. tariffs on refined metal imports and by concerns over sulphur supply, a key input for sulphuric acid used in some copper operations. Li Xuezhi, head of research at Chaos Ternary Futures, said resilient demand and supply issues were driving a “notable recovery in industrial metals.” Mining
Prediction markets showed traders were still leaning toward firm prices, though not without hesitation. Kalshi copper contracts listed 55% odds that copper would be above $6.35 a pound on May 29, and 34% odds it would be above $6.41, suggesting the market sees elevated prices holding for now rather than fading quickly.
But there is a clear risk. Copper rallies can reverse fast if Chinese demand weakens, U.S. tariff expectations shift, or disrupted supply comes back sooner than expected. Antofagasta also has to deliver the better grades and processing rates it has promised; a strong price does less good if fewer tonnes are shipped.
Higher prices have already fed through once. Reuters reported in February that Antofagasta’s 2025 core profit rose 52% to a record $5.2 billion, helped by record copper prices, even as output slipped slightly and net debt rose. That is the setup investors are trading again: copper strength can mask operational softness, but only for so long.
