COULD THEY MAKE AN OFFER?25 Dec 2025 21:12
Is copper a new precious metal?
Beyond banking, the analyst team at Citigroup has highlighted Glencore (LSE:GLEN) as one of the top stock picks for 2026.
The acceleration of technological innovation has resulted in surging investment to build data centres, energy infrastructure, electric cars, etc. But an often overlooked critical component of these technologies is copper. And at our current rate, miners like Glencore can’t keep up. So much so that by 2035, the International Energy Agency has forecast a massive 30% global supply deficit.
So it’s no surprise that Glencore’s management has recently announced plans for a drastic ramp-up of its copper mining activities. The goal is to increase annual production from around 850,000 tonnes today to one million tonnes by 2028, making it the largest copper producer in the world. And to ensure it keeps that title, production will be expanded even further to 1.6 million tonnes by 2035.
However, Glencore’s track record of hitting production targets is a bit spotty. At the same time, with other mining giants seeking to up their copper volumes, it’s possible that new discoveries are made, reducing the size of the long-term deficit and limiting the long-term growth of copper prices.