It was Wednesday afternoon, just hours after new details emerged about U.S. government plans to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine, and there was Teck Resources’ chief executive Don Lindsay citing the news as yet more evidence in support of his company’s strategic shift to copper.
Copper, a metal used in nearly everything from toasters and computers to large construction projects, is trading around a seven-year high on the London Metals Exchange, at US$7,616 per tonne.
Despite a global health pandemic that has left parts of the economy in an indefinite state of freeze, the high price in copper is one indication to industry executives — Lindsay chief among them — that a global economic recovery is under way and that the industrial economy is chugging along.
“Vaccines are going to help all this, and news, even today’s news, on just how fast vaccination could roll out in the U.S. is yet one more tailwind for long-term global growth and consumption,” he said Wednesday at the Citi Basic Materials Conference.
Lindsay said the company — Canada’s largest diversified miner, which produces steelmaking coal, oil, copper, and zinc — is rebalancing its portfolio, and pouring cash flows from coal and zinc into copper assets.
For the rest of this article: https://financialpost.com/commodities/mining/teck-resources-rebounds-175-from-march-lows-boosted-by-coppers-blistering-rally