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Copper supply rethink as smelter treatment charges fall
Chilean copper miner Antofagasta ANTO.L last week inked the first major 2024 concentrates supply deal with China's Jinchuan Group. It remains to be seen whether the terms form an annual benchmark for others. Indeed, it's far from certain there will be a single benchmark for next year due to a shifting copper concentrates landscape. But even so, the drop in headline treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs), the fees a smelter earns for converting concentrate into refined metal, has taken the market by surprise. Next year was supposed to be a year of raw material surplus, with smelters enjoying TC/RCs equal to or better ... (full story)