As war in the Middle East continues, a prolonged Iran war would squeeze the big-three copper miners' earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) more than consensus reflects, with Bloomberg Intelligence’s (BI's) scenario showing that Southern Copper faces a 20% cut, Antofagasta a 32% cut and First Quantum a 55% cut. With this in mind, a report by BI global head of metals and mining Grant Sporre shows that oil of $150/bl-plus and curbed flows could drive copper below $10 000/t and result in a refined surplus of between 100 000 t to 200 000 t. BI posits that the copper price could slip below ... (full story)