MarkGillCPA

Freeport McMoRan, For Copper's Comeback

Michael,
I've been hearing that the move from $1.25/lb to 2.85 was due to Chinese stocking up on copper while it was cheap. How much has China accumulated? Will they keep buying? Maybe the chinese see this a an alternative to buying U.S. treasuries.

On a longer term basis, Barclays (the ex-Lehman analyst actually) has done some interesting research on the idea that there is a long term shortage in copper developing due to existing mines depleating faster than new mines can come online. New projects are often out in the middle of nowhere and take upwards of 5-10 years to develop. Any thoughts on this?