[TowerTalk] copper

[Lux, Jim]

On 4/1/21 6:28 AM, N4ZR wrote:
> Just as an aside, I was once (too long ago) State Department desk 
> officer for Zambia, during a major slump in copper prices, and saw 
> first-hand the devastating effects on everyone when a country depends 
> on one commodity.  I'm pretty confident that most of the current high 
> price simply reflects scarcity (and probably also supply disruptions 
> due to COVID).  One can hope...
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR


Copper is a classic cyclical commodity - prices go up, mines reopen, 
production increases, prices go down, mines close, etc. Typically it 
varies about 50% over a sequence of years (on top of the generally 
rising slope of a percent a year, etc.).

The last year has been a significant increase ($4/lb on spot market vs 
usual $2-3)

http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/copper_historical_large.html


https://www.macrotrends.net/1476/copper-prices-historical-chart-data

(this one has a log scale on price, so be aware)