After years of sluggish buying activity, major copper mining companies are beginning to open their wallets. In late March, the Canadian group Lundin announced the purchase of a 51% stake in the Caserones copper and molybdenum mine, in Chile, for US$950 million from Japan’s JX Nippon Mining. 

At the same time, the Swiss-based commodities giant Glencore announced an offer to merge with the Canadian company Teck in a deal valued at US$23 billion, which, as of this writing, had been rejected by Teck. Both companies have significant copper operations and projects in Chile and Peru.

These developments are taking place in an environment shaped by a combination of short-term factors——a current reduction in copper supply, mainly due to operational and political problems in Peru and Chile that are affecting production in both countries, the world’s two largest producers of this metal— with long-term factors—ora significant imbalance between supply and demand expected over the next decade. 

It is expected that copper demand to grow strongly in the coming years due to the metal’s importance in the decarbonization of the economy and the development of electromobility. S&P Global estimates that copper demand will more than double by 2035, when it is projected to reach 50 million metric tons—an increase that significantly exceeds current industry supply projections. 

It is an imbalance that, as the president of Freeport McMoran told *The Economist*, cannot be resolved through investment alone, due to the scarcity of opportunities to develop viable new projects around the world. 

Among the options for addressing this challenge is to boost exploration and development in areas that are already in production —such as what Teck is doing by extending the life of its Quebrada Blanca mine in northern Chile, or Lundin itself at its Candelaria mine in the Atacama region—and continuing to advance the development of technologies for recovering residual copper from old tailings.