Friday, December 30, 2005
Minds on the Mines: Copper
The Motley Fool via Yahoo! News
Forget silver and gold. Copper has been a truly precious metal over the past five years. The price of this ultra-useful base metal has risen from a low of $0.61 a pound in late 2001 to as much as $2.14 a pound this month. That makes the doubling of silver prices and the near-doubling of gold over that same time period look downright chintzy by comparison.
While gold and silver both have their uses, they pale in usefulness in comparison to copper. I don't want to sound like a paid spokesperson of the Copper Council, but this metal is used in everything from wiring and plumbing to motors, circuits, and corrosion-resistant alloys. Given its place in construction and manufacturing activity, it won't be any surprise to hear that China's economic growth has sucked up a lot of the world's copper production in recent years.
Forget silver and gold. Copper has been a truly precious metal over the past five years. The price of this ultra-useful base metal has risen from a low of $0.61 a pound in late 2001 to as much as $2.14 a pound this month. That makes the doubling of silver prices and the near-doubling of gold over that same time period look downright chintzy by comparison.
While gold and silver both have their uses, they pale in usefulness in comparison to copper. I don't want to sound like a paid spokesperson of the Copper Council, but this metal is used in everything from wiring and plumbing to motors, circuits, and corrosion-resistant alloys. Given its place in construction and manufacturing activity, it won't be any surprise to hear that China's economic growth has sucked up a lot of the world's copper production in recent years.
Labels: Copper
