Copper soared above $4 a pound for the first time and nickel and zinc rose to records on signs that higher prices have done nothing to curb demand. Gold climbed to a 26-year high and platinum jumped to the highest ever.
Seems that it will not take long and we will be running out of many other things (not just oil and gas).
That sucks.
Events are somehow getting momentum. Or is it just my feeling?
Gold went from 600 to 700 in just a month.
Nearly all resources are finite and we're going through them pretty quickly at present.
Hope for a better fate this time - at least I find it relevant!
Apart from the financial aspects with more and more paper money chasing finite and diminishing amounts of stuff around, mining operations are all about energy. Increasing energy cost -> increasing mining cost.
A large part of the recent increase in commodity prices is demand from China and the ongoing military action in Afghanistan & Iraq (all metal prices go up in wartime), and of course the increased oil cost (and uncertainty in the case of gold & silver). However for the price of copper, while these are playing a part, the massive increase (now over $6,000 per tonne) is more likely to be as a result of market manipulation and a resulting price bubble. Certainly a lot of people dealing in this area of the market say the copper price bears no relation to the market fundamentals of demand & supply.
AllanH wrote:.... However for the price of copper, while these are playing a part, the massive increase (now over $6,000 per tonne) is more likely to be as a result of market manipulation and a resulting price bubble. Certainly a lot of people dealing in this area of the market say the copper price bears no relation to the market fundamentals of demand & supply.
including:
....an analyst at BaseMetals.com, said demand for copper tubes was collapsing as producers switched to PVC plastics. The market in Germany has halved from 90,000 to 45,000 tonnes. "There's a very rapid switch from copper. When it turns, copper could easily drop $1,000 a tonne in one day,"
Of course if we run out of plastic tubes....(made from petrochemicals) sometime in the future....
I've read an idea on another chatty website that there's too much money flying around the world and not enough stuff to buy with it... what with the increases in price of oil, gas, gold, silver, copper and houses that could be correct!
I don't think the concept of peak oil can be tranferred to peak metals too simply. Oil gets used and it's gone but when a metal gets used it can be used again. The Romans mined a great deal of lead in Britain but there are only a couple of ingots with Roman marks left - all the rest has been recycled many times and is in our roof flashings and batteries. As with oil, the easy copper has been been mined and we now take it from ever lower grade ores as we increase our global stock of electric cable and plumbing parts but if the demand - supply relationship pushes the price too far most uses for copper can be switched to other stuff. Water pipes and tanks can be plastic (oops, that's made of oil) and electrical cables can be aluminium (oops, that takes a lot of energy to refine).
Perhaps its a suburban myth but I believe all the gold ever mined could fit in an average semi-detached house. The price may be high but that's not because anybody actually needs gold. Most of it sits in bank vaults and the rest dangles from ladies ears. A tiny proportion is coated on electrical switches.
