FOCUS: Copper-producing countries want to reap benefits of record price

Copper's price is trading at all-time highs - and now the countries where it is mined the most want a piece of the action.

The London Metal Exchange's three-month copper contract recently hit an all-time high of $10,747 per tonne - industrial commodities have broadly rallied on the expectation that government investments in green energy schemes and infrastructure projects after the Covid-19 pandemic will boost future demand for the raw materials that underpin these initiatives.
But the bullish momentum in prices comes while any countries where the metals are mined are still struggling with the impact of the pandemic, are attempting to rebuild fragile economies and are re-negotiating the social pacts between the citizens and the politicians who represent them.
The disparity has forced a fundamental shift in recent weeks - while the share prices of many mining companies have soared, some of the countries in which they operate are now threatening to introduce a slew of progressive tax legislation.

In Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), influential politicians are talking of...

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