Mining Press Roundup: Copper's Record Rally Hits a China-Sized Pothole as Ivanhoe and Marimaca Keep Drilling Bigger

Copper is having the kind of day that captures the whole market's mood right now: a record-breaking rally that's simultaneously running into real demand weakness. Comex copper touched an all-time high this week even as China — the metal's largest buyer — posted its weakest August import figures in six years, a split screen that sums up a market where structural supply tightness is colliding with a wobblier-than-expected Chinese economy. Layered on top of that macro drama is a run of company-specific news: a Quebec developer that just tripled its project's valuation, a Congo copper discovery that keeps getting bigger, and a Greek mine that finally has concentrate to sell after a decade of false starts. Copper miners (COPX) closed up 4.1% on Tuesday, according to market data, suggesting investors are choosing to look through the demand noise toward the supply story.

Copper Prices: Record Highs Meet a China Import Slump

Copper paused just below record territory on Wednesday after four straight sessions of gains carried the metal to all-time highs in New York and London, with the escalating conflict in the Middle East pushing Brent crude back above $100 a barrel and reviving worries about inflation ahead of Friday's US consumer price data. Comex copper for December delivery was up 0.5% at $6.8545 a pound by late morning in New York, after touching $6.8730 on Tuesday, the highest ever for a Comex contract, with Tuesday's settlement of $6.8235 also a record.

The tension driving the market is unmistakable. China brought in 382,000 tonnes of copper in August, its weakest August in six years, while Collahuasi is restarting a mothballed leach plant now that $14,000 copper pays for the acid. That's a striking detail — a mine that had gone quiet is coming back to life purely because prices have gotten high enough to justify the cost of the acid needed to leach low-grade ore. Comex copper is up about 22% in 2026 and roughly 50% over the past year. The rally has been so sharp that the August rally added $357 billion to the value of the world's 50 biggest miners, the largest monthly gain on record.

Per market data, COPX (Copper Miners ETF) closed at $94.38, up 4.1% day-over-day, while broader energy (XLE) also gained, closing at $64.77 with a 14-day RSI of 68.5 — a reading that suggests the sector may be overbought after a strong run. Meanwhile the article's own headline framing points to mine supply heading for its first annual drop since 2017, a reminder that even with China buying less, the physical market for refined metal isn't necessarily getting looser.

Troilus Mining: Quebec Copper-Gold Project Triples in Value

Troilus Mining delivered one of the day's biggest project updates, and it's a genuinely new milestone rather than a rehash. A new study for Troilus Mining's namesake copper-gold project in Quebec, Canada, has more than tripled the mine's estimated value thanks to detailed engineering, an expanded reserve and higher metal-price assumptions.

The numbers are eye-catching. Troilus now carries an after-tax net present value of $3.2 billion (C$2.3 billion), a 22% after-tax internal rate of return, a 3.6-year payback period and a 26-year operating life, according to a company statement Wednesday. Wednesday's updated technical report builds on a May 2024 feasibility study, which outlined an after-tax NPV of $884.5 million and a 14% IRR, when that study contemplated a 22-year, 50,000-tonne-per-day open-pit operation. That's roughly a 3.6x jump in NPV.

Construction is anticipated to start next year, with first ore targeted for September 2029 and commercial production in March 2030, and initial capital costs are now estimated at about $1.43 billion, reflecting a more advanced project definition supported by about 95,000 hours of engineering. Life-of-mine payable production is substantial: life-of-mine payable production is estimated at 5.63 million ounces of gold, 472 million pounds of copper and 10.88 million ounces of silver, reinforcing Troilus' position as one of Canada's largest undeveloped gold-copper projects. Desjardins Capital Markets analyst Allison Carson called it "a significantly derisked baseline for the company ahead of development," and Troilus is already pursuing debt financing to match — the company has a senior secured project financing mandate of up to $1.2 billion led by Société Générale, KfW IPEX-Bank and Export Development Canada.

Ivanhoe Mines: Makoko Copper Discovery Grows Another 30%

Robert Friedland's Ivanhoe Mines keeps expanding one of the decade's most talked-about copper stories. Ivanhoe Mines is accelerating plans for its Makoko District in the Democratic Republic of Congo after expanding the giant discovery by 30% from its 2025 estimate to about 12 million tonnes of contained copper, with more growth expected from ongoing drilling. The Makoko district, part of its Western Forelands project, now holds 42 million tonnes of indicated resources grading 2.66% copper and 612 million tonnes of inferred resources grading 1.8% copper.

Those grades stand out in an industry accustomed to declining ore quality: most large copper deposits in production worldwide run below 1%, and a 2.66% indicated grade puts Makoko among the richest new discoveries anywhere. The resource still isn't fully captured — about 60,000 metres of drilling completed in 2026 was not incorporated into the latest estimate, while mineralization remains open in multiple directions, Ivanhoe founder Robert Friedland said. Friedland didn't undersell the pace of discovery: "Our track record of copper discovery in the Western Forelands is unrivalled… We are discovering copper at an absurdly high discovery rate of 100 million pounds of contained copper for every 1,000 metres drilled," he said.

Ivanhoe is moving fast toward development. Ivanhoe plans to begin a scoping study for Makoko in the first quarter of 2027 while expanding drilling to support faster project development, considering a series of shallow open pits alongside underground mining that it says could reduce upfront capital requirements, and has already begun site preparation including fencing, road construction and environmental baseline work. The company is drawing on playbook experience: it expects to draw on its experience developing the nearby Kamoa-Kakula copper complex, which advanced from discovery to first production in less than six years, and which Ivanhoe owns alongside China's Zijin and the Congolese government.

Eldorado Gold: First Concentrate at Skouries After Years of Delay

Eldorado Gold hit a milestone that's been a decade in the making. Eldorado Gold has produced the first copper-gold concentrate at its Skouries project in Greece as the miner targets commercial production in the fourth quarter, with the Canadian miner having introduced first ore into the crushing circuit in July and since commissioning key processing systems, including flotation and tailings thickening.

The road here was long. Skouries, part of the Kassandra Mines Complex in northern Greece, has endured a lengthy and difficult development history, with construction suspended for four years between 2017 and 2021 amid permitting delays and local opposition. The company has plenty of runway to ramp up: the ore stockpile now exceeds 4.6 million tonnes, enough to support more than seven months of planned processing throughput.

CEO George Burns framed it as a turning point for the whole company: "This is a defining moment for Eldorado. First concentrate at Skouries represents the culmination of years of development, construction and partnership and marks the beginning of a new chapter for our company." He also tied it to a broader strategic shift: "Together with McIlvenna Bay in Saskatchewan, Skouries is expected to transform Eldorado into a larger, more diversified precious metals and critical minerals producer with a stronger production base, meaningful copper and silver exposure and enhanced free cashflow generation." One wrinkle remains — the site is still running on temporary power while it awaits connection to Greece's national grid, pending final inspections.

Marimaca Copper: Pampa Medina Grows With High-Grade Step-Out Holes

Chile's Marimaca Copper added scale to one of the region's more closely watched copper-silver exploration stories. Marimaca Copper has cut 216 metres grading nearly 1% copper at Pampa Medina in Chile's Antofagasta Region while step-out drilling pushed the copper-silver system 300 metres beyond earlier holes, with hole SPRD-15 returning 216 metres grading 0.96% copper and 7.2 grams silver per tonne from 466 metres downhole, including 62 metres at 2.2% copper and 21.5 grams silver from 602 metres.

The location matters strategically: Pampa Medina lies 28 km east of Marimaca's more advanced oxide deposit, within 40 km of Antofagasta, the mining region's capital. Vice-President of Exploration Sergio Rivera said "Pampa Medina remains open in several directions and is materially under-tested... These results continue to strengthen our view that we are defining a large, high-grade copper-silver system." Investors reacted immediately: the company's Toronto-listed shares jumped 13% on Tuesday to $9.10 apiece, giving it a market capitalization of $1.2 billion, with shares having ranged between $6.72 and $13.49 over the past 12 months. With 30,000 metres of drilling planned at Pampa Medina this year, the deposit's proximity to planned mine infrastructure gives Marimaca a potential growth source alongside a project already through feasibility and environmental review.

BHP and KGHM: Copper Giants Formalize a Global Exploration Alliance

Two of the industry's biggest names put pen to paper on a partnership aimed squarely at the same supply squeeze driving copper's rally. KGHM Polska Miedź, the EU's largest producer of mined copper, and BHP World Exploration signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a framework for exploration of areas of mutual interest.

The deal is explicitly framed around scarcity. "The world will need more copper, driven by traditional economic growth, the energy transition, and digital investments," with BHP saying it is "focused on unlocking high returning growth through innovative partnerships like this one," with the MoU providing "a structure for BHP and KGHM teams to come together and explore new avenues to find and unlock copper growth opportunities." KGHM's Anna Sobieraj-Kozakiewicz added that the mining industry benefits from open dialogue and the exchange of experience among companies operating across different regions and jurisdictions.

This builds on prior cooperation — the new memorandum builds on an existing copper cooperation between BHP and KGHM in Chile, where the two miners have previously worked together to improve their respective operations. Analysts see the timing as no coincidence: physical supply constraints continue to tighten across key copper-producing hubs, with BloombergNEF projecting the global deficit will reach 7 million metric tons by 2035.

Galantas Gold: Exits Northern Ireland to Sharpen Chile Focus

Junior miner Galantas Gold closed the books on a long-running Northern Ireland asset to concentrate capital elsewhere. Galantas Gold has sold its remaining 20% indirect interest in Northern Ireland's Omagh gold project to Ocean Partners UK for $5 million, completing its exit from the long-troubled asset as it shifts its focus to Chile.

The mechanics of the deal cleaned up the balance sheet: about $3.26 million of the consideration was used to settle debt Galantas owed Ocean Partners under a promissory note and other obligations, with the remainder paid in cash, while Galantas had valued the 20% interest at about $4.1 million as of June 30. CEO Mario Stifano was direct about the strategic rationale: "The completion of this transaction (…) allows Galantas to focus its resources on advancing its portfolio of gold and copper assets in Chile," he said. The exit leaves the Canada-based junior positioned to concentrate its resources on its Chilean gold and copper portfolio, including the Andacollo gold project and the Indiana project. It's a clean, if unglamorous, example of a junior deciding a legacy asset simply isn't worth the ongoing capital commitment when better opportunities exist elsewhere in the portfolio.

What It Means

The throughline today is copper, copper, and more copper — but told from every angle of the value chain. Majors like BHP and KGHM are formalizing partnerships to hunt for new deposits because organic discovery has gotten scarce; explorers like Ivanhoe and Marimaca are proving that scarcity wrong with genuinely world-class intercepts in the DRC and Chile; and developers like Troilus and Eldorado are showing what happens when patient capital finally gets a project across the finish line — value triples, concentrate finally ships, and years of setbacks turn into cash flow. Even the macro backdrop, with China's import slump colliding against record Comex prices, reinforces that this is a market being pulled in two directions at once: near-term demand jitters against a supply pipeline that everyone agrees is too thin for what the energy transition and AI-driven electricity demand will require.

For juniors, the message is similarly consistent: capital is flowing toward the commodity story that has institutional conviction, and companies without a copper (or copper-adjacent) angle — see Galantas trimming a gold legacy asset to refocus on Chilean copper-gold ground — are reallocating accordingly. With COPX up sharply and gold and silver pulling back slightly per market data, investors appear to be rotating further into the base-metals story that's dominating today's press releases.

This roundup covers press releases published on September 9, 2026. Company announcements are sourced from mining industry wire services. For corrections or updates, contact contact@stakeandpaper.com.