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Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.3% to about $14,703 a tonne in official open-outcry trading on 8 September 2026, an all-time high for the contract.
The record came a session after the metal passed its previous peak of $14,527.50 a tonne, set in January 2026, during a rally that ran for several consecutive sessions.
The rally was driven by expectations that the United States would extend tariffs to imports of refined copper, pulling metal into American warehouses and draining stocks elsewhere.
Weak mine output and falling inventories outside the US, including in China, tightened short-term availability further; LME copper was up roughly 18% over 2026.
For India the price matters through import costs: Hindustan Copper Limited is the country's only vertically integrated copper producer, working mines at Malanjkhand, Khetri and Ghatsila.
India's copper resources sit in three belts. The Khetri-Jhunjhunu belt runs through the Aravalli region of Rajasthan; Malanjkhand lies in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh and is the country's largest open-pit copper mine; and the Singhbhum belt of Jharkhand, with the Ghatsila operations, is the third. Globally, the largest reserves and output lie in Chile, Australia, Peru and Russia.
The world's main venue for trading and pricing industrial metals; its three-month contract is the global benchmark for copper
India's only vertically integrated copper producer, covering mining, beneficiation and smelting; a public sector undertaking
Nodal ministry for mineral policy, exploration and the critical minerals agenda
Carries out mineral exploration and resource assessment, including for copper and other critical minerals
Secure supplies of minerals critical to clean energy, electronics and defence through domestic exploration, overseas assets, recycling and stockpiling
Key: Approved by the Union Cabinet in January 2025 with Rs 16,300 crore of government expenditure, run by the Ministry of Mines; copper features in India's critical minerals list
Bring private capital into the exploration and mining of minerals the country presently imports
Key: Enabled by the 2023 amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, which allowed the Centre to auction blocks of specified critical and strategic minerals
GS Paper III > Indian economy - resources, energy transition and critical minerals; GS Paper I > Distribution of key natural resources
General Awareness > Commodity markets, international trade and tariffs
Consider the following statements: I. India has joined the Minerals Security Partnership as a member. II. India is a resource-rich country in all the 30 critical minerals that it has identified. III. The Parliament in 2023 has amended the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 empowering the Central Government to exclusively auction mining lease... for certain critical minerals. Which of the statements given above are correct?
Answer: I and III only
A copper iron sulphide mineral, the most important ore of copper worldwide.
The LME's benchmark forward contract, priced for delivery three months ahead and used as the reference price for industrial metals.
A mineral essential to economic or national security whose supply chain is vulnerable to disruption; copper is on India's critical minerals list.