High copper prices suppress downstream purchasing, with operating rates and new orders continuing to decline

Enamelled wire industry machine operating rate fell WoW this week (Aug. 21-Aug. 27) ....

Capstone Copper completed the acquisition of the San Pietro copper-gold-iron-cobalt project in Chile's Atacama region on 31 August 2026, paying US$25 million in Capstone shares to New Golden Exploration Chile, a joint venture of Golden Arrow and SSA. Situated between its Mantoverde, Santo Domingo and Sierra Norte properties, San Pietro adds about 16,000 hectares of highly prospective ground. The Rincones and Colla deposits host an inferred resource of 492 million tonnes at 0.23% copper and 0.05 g/t gold. Within a 20 km radius Capstone's concessions now hold roughly 1.6 billion tonnes of measured and indicated resources plus 1.4 billion tonnes inferred. Following the 2024 Sierra Norte purchase and a 2025 ENAMI option, the deal consolidates district infrastructure and expands future copper growth optionality.

Russia's Udokan Copper started copper cathode production at its Far East hydrometallurgical plant on 2 September 2026, almost three years after a December 2023 fire delayed the launch; President Putin joined the commissioning by video link from Vladivostok. Russia's largest copper project, Udokan is under US sanctions and had already produced copper concentrate since September 2023. The SX-EW plant is designed to reach 150,000 tonnes of cathodes per year from 2026, supplied to the domestic market and exports to China and wider Asia. A second phase planned for 2028 would lift output to about 550,000 tonnes annually, potentially ranking Udokan among the world's five largest copper producers. Phase-one investment was about US$2.9 billion.