State-owned Hindustan Copper extended its winning streak for the fifth straight day, gaining another 7% to ₹330 apiece in Thursday’s trade (September 25), and moving closer to its 52-week high of ₹353. Today’s sharp rally was driven by a surge in copper prices, positioning the company to capitalise on the global rise in demand.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange jumped 3.9% to hit a 15-month high of $10,400 a metric ton in Wednesday’s trade after Freeport-McMoRan declared force majeure on output from its Grasberg mine in Indonesia, the world’s second-largest copper source.
The rally has now pushed copper prices closer to their all-time high of $11,104.50, reached in May 2024. The force majeure followed a September 8 accident that killed two workers and left five missing after a massive mudflow involving around 800,000 metric tons of material.
The incident at Freeport highlights how vulnerable the copper market is to global supply shocks as tightness deepens. It follows further disruptions in the industry, including Hudbay Minerals Inc.’s announcement earlier this week that it was shutting operations at a mill in Peru due to political protests, Bloomberg reported.
Freeport also said it expects copper sales to be about 4% lower in the third quarter than previously forecast, while gold sales are likely to come in roughly 6% lower. Grasberg, located on the mountainous island of New Guinea, accounts for around 3% of global copper output.
Copper, a critical metal for electronics, has soared amid the clean-energy transition and the artificial intelligence boom. At the same time, a series of accidents and disruptions at mines in South America and Central Africa have strained supplies, sending prices sharply higher.
Hindustan Copper share price delivers over 40% return in September
Hindustan Copper shares have surged 43% in September, marking their strongest monthly rally since December 2023. The uptrend has been fueled by multiple positive triggers, including rising copper prices and the renewal of its mining lease for the Rakha Copper Mine in Jamshedpur for another 20 years, which paves the way for reopening and expansion.
Additionally, the company signed an MoU with Oil India to jointly explore and develop critical minerals such as copper, aligning with the government’s National Critical Minerals Mission and boosting investor sentiment.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
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