Antofagasta, the London-listed Chilean major, has halted mining and processing at its Los Pelambres operation, while Toronto-headquartered global miner Barrick<\/a> evacuated employees because of the extreme weather.<\/p>\n Stock Chart IconStock chart icon Copper.<\/p>\n Lundin Mining said Monday that operations at its Caserones mine in Chile’s northern Atacama region could take two to three weeks to restart. Power lines serving the mine were damaged by heavy snowfall, forcing the Vancouver-based company to suspend operations on July 18.<\/p>\n Rainfall also disrupted Lundin’s Candelaria mine, although the site continued operating using existing ore stockpiles, later returning to full capacity.<\/p>\n A global supply squeeze<\/p>\n Copper prices have surged in recent years, hitting an all-time high of $6.70 per pound, or $13,643 per metric ton, on June 2 as concerns over a global supply squeeze intensified.<\/p>\n Strategists warn that any prolonged hit to Chilean output resulting from the winter storms could add further upward pressure on prices \u2014 raising the cost of building AI data centers and manufacturing smartphones, electric vehicles, household appliances and industrial machinery \u2014 all of which rely heavily on copper.<\/p>\n Ewa Manthey, commodities strategist at ING, said the storms alone were unlikely to upend the copper market. However, the disruption reinforces the broader theme driving prices: supply is increasingly struggling to keep pace with demand.<\/p>\n “With the market already facing supply disruptions, tariff uncertainty and tighter concentrate availability, any prolonged weather-related outages in Chile could provide additional support for prices,” Manthey told CNBC via email.<\/p>\n Natalie Scott-Gray, senior metals demand strategist at StoneX, said uncertainty over potential U.S. Section 232 tariffs and China’s crackdown on the availability of scrap copper have tightened global supplies this year.<\/p>\n She told CNBC’s “Morning Call” that Chile \u2014 the world’s biggest single copper producer \u2014 recently downgraded its output by 2% this year to 5.3 million tonnes.<\/p>\n “It just amplifies mining supply risks for Chile, in which we expect a second year of declining output,” she later said via email.<\/p>\n Scott-Gray described the impact on major producers from the storms as “temporary and limited,” highlighting contingency plans designed to contain the damage, with smaller miners \u2014 which tend to have less operational flexibility \u2014 more likely to be affected. <\/p>\n But any further setbacks to mine supply could leave buyers competing for an even smaller pool of available copper, boosting prices further.<\/p>\n Another record high?<\/p>\n Duncan Wanblad, CEO of Anglo American, said the company is “very, very bullish” on copper’s fundamentals.<\/p>\n The firm reported a 35% jump in its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization to $4 billion in its first half trading statement Thursday, aided by a “favorable” copper price. Speaking with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”, Wanblad said the London-listed miner has “reshaped its business” around the metal. <\/p>\n “We are a copper-led mining company… underpinned by some of the world’s best mining assets,” he added.<\/p>\n![\"hide](\"https:\/\/static-redesign.cnbcfm.com\/dist\/a54b41835a8b60db28c2.svg\")
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