"Copper, on the other hand, moves on market fundamentals. And, right now, "the market fundamentals remain solid" according to comments by Freeport-McMoRan CEO Richard Adkerson on the company's most recent quarterly conference call. He noted that Chinese demand is better than most expected while European demand is improving and North America is growing at a slow rate.
Meanwhile, the longer-term outlook is even brighter. According to a forecast by industry experts at Wood Mackenzie, if copper demand grows at a modest pace of 1% per year, the industry will need to add 5 million tons of new supply to meet demand in the coming years. Given that new projects require copper at $3 an ounce to justify the investment, it suggests that copper prices will need to move higher so that the industry can meet demand. In the words of Adkerson, "there is a deficit looming, absent any big disruption in the world's economy or in China. There is an inevitable deficit that will allow our company to really profit from it." To put that potential into perspective, a $0.10-per-pound increase in the average copper price can boost the company's annual cash flow by $280 million. So, if copper were to rise to an average of more than $3 an ounce, its cash flow could jump from less than $4 billion to as much as $6 billion."
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/15/better-buy-freeport-mcmoran-inc-vs-barrick-gold.aspx