Could Copper One Day Become A Precious Metal?

[NAP83]

Personally, I don't believe this will happen anytime soon. There is simply an abundance of copper out there both in terms of reserves and as discovered and undiscovered resources. Just a few days ago I wrote an article on my blog Latitude Post entitled 'Could Copper One Day Become A Precious Metal?'. I am enclosing the link for the article below....

https://latitudepost.com/2019/12/03/could-copper-one-day-become-a-precious-metal/

In the article I also provide statistics extracted from the USGS regarding current reserves and resources of other industrial metals and precious metals plus their most recent production figures.

Hope you all enjoy reading it!

[AuricGoldfinger]

In a word. No.

[GoldenPhil]

I think yes but not for like 300 years lol

[Metalisreal]

Actually I wish it was precious (or at least semi-precious).

Yes it's an industrial metal but I still think it's beautiful and I love the red color. The problem with it is that it turns brown with age and it gets that nasty green on it when exposed to moisture. I would love to have some kilo bars of it all polished up if the premiums weren't so high but I may still get one for display purposes.  

 

[onlyroadtoheaven]

Funnily enough I just watched @BackyardBullion video on this. I purchased a bar of copper many years ago for fun but after seeing his  video I may purchase some rounds. 

I could spend £10 on 2 drinks in a bar (well, perhaps not at the moment without getting arrested) or the equivalent on a nice 5oz copper coin to play with. I think Covid will change the way people spend, or their decision making process for spending, in future. 

[AuricGoldfinger]

I would also love if it became a precious metal. I had a couple tons of the stuff once! Price has gone through the floor since though!

Theres a great you tube chanel calle bigstackd he turns things into bars.

If i could have got a company to turn mine into bars for a reasonable price I would have happily! 

 

[GoldenPhil]

I am pretty sure that scrap merchants buy copper so it is tradable 

[vacancies]

I love the copper ingots too.  But cant bring myself to pay 5 or 600% more than the spot price.  

I think one night after a few beers I can see a random purchase taking place on ebay.

 

Anyone found a nicely cast one for less than £25?

[GoldenPhil]

1 minute ago, vacancies said:

I love the copper ingots too.  But cant bring myself to pay 5 or 600% more than the spot price.  

I think one night after a few beers I can see a random purchase taking place on ebay.

 

Anyone found a nicely cast one for less than £25?

Could @BackyardBulliondo one? 

[BackyardBullion]

11 minutes ago, GoldenPhil said:

Could @BackyardBulliondo one? 

Maybe one day when I have a work space big enough to have a silver, gold and copper workstation with no potential crossover contaminations 🙂

Found this listing on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233583665745

[BackyardBullion]

Or a big chunky 4.4kg 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223887583839

[AuricGoldfinger]

I think you have to be really careful with the fumes from smelting copper. I’d love to cast some myself but think it’s an expensive hobby. 
 

Wish there was a company you could just send it off to to be processed and have a load of nice perfect shiny bars sent back lol. 
 

@MickB had some i think it was bronze and aluminium cast into the shape of a house brick that looked really cool. Think it was pricey for the one off not sure tho!

[paul1212]

Sharps do (did) one: https://www.sharpspixley.com/sharps-pixley-1kg-copper-bar

Does look good.

[MickB]

8 hours ago, AuricGoldfinger said:

I think you have to be really careful with the fumes from smelting copper. I’d love to cast some myself but think it’s an expensive hobby. 
 

Wish there was a company you could just send it off to to be processed and have a load of nice perfect shiny bars sent back lol. 
 

@MickB had some i think it was bronze and aluminium cast into the shape of a house brick that looked really cool. Think it was pricey for the one off not sure tho!

Last year I emailed Geiger Edelmetalle regarding a copper brick. They would do it for me but they said the tooling alone is way too expensive for a one-off. Apparently it wouldn't be a pour cast so I guess it would involve drop forging a brick. 

[Groundup]

I've always liked copper, there's something about the colour-smell and useablity that is appealing.

As for will it become a PM  I don't know.

I hope so because for the last 25 years since I bought my home I've been saving every last piece of scrap from DIY. PLUS i took on an allotment form this old chap a number of years ago there was two massive sheds loaded with the stuff, there was even the bean frames made out of copper. One day I'll weigh it in, but not before it moon's.

[freefall]

Copper and gold are the only two elemental metals out of 84 that aren’t silver or grey. 

[Arganto]

It's tempting to buy that 940 gram round just have it on a shelf. That's quite a premium over spot though, I thought silver was bad 🤣

Reading above though it's more problematic to melt and cast? Maybe there's some justification for a larger premium but £14.99 over a base cost of less than £4 is into jewellery territory...

[AuricGoldfinger]

4 hours ago, Liam84 said:

It's tempting to buy that 940 gram round just have it on a shelf. That's quite a premium over spot though, I thought silver was bad 🤣

Reading above though it's more problematic to melt and cast? Maybe there's some justification for a larger premium but £14.99 over a base cost of less than £4 is into jewellery territory...

The premium are really more that any copper bars are only produced on a small scale by small independents. Realistically there is basically no demand for copper bars. Until there is you won’t see anything anywhere near a competitive premium - there is no competition!

[Arganto]

Looking into this has opened up a whole world of small copper pieces to me that I didn't know existed though, against the intrinsic value they're very over priced but four or five quid posted for a 1 oz 'fine' bar or round with a famous design on is kind of funky.

[vacancies]

Still tempted.  But reading everything here sort of says that the bars are probably going to get cheaper as they get more mass produced.

Had a look into copper ingot imports from china/thailand and looks like you could get it shipped in for close to spot..... if you buy a metric ton.

But some of the offers were less than spot (??) - then looking at the photos a bit more closely, you could see copper sheet in some of them.  Makes me wonder of some of these minted ingots popping up are brass/other wrapped in copper then selling for £20/30 notes.

[Arganto]

I wouldn't mind a big lump/bar of polished brass actually. I have memories from my childhood of my mum polishing all the brass ornaments in the house, I used to love the shine on the metal after it was given the elbow grease treatment. Everything from Hindu goddess statuettes to repurposed large bore shells. I can still smell the brasso now 😁

[HerefordBullyun]

1 minute ago, Liam84 said:

I wouldn't mind a big lump/bar of polished brass actually. I have memories from my childhood of my mum polishing all the brass ornaments in the house, I used to love the shine on the metal after it was given the elbow grease treatment. Everything from Hindu goddess statuettes to repurposed large bore shells. I can still smell the brasso now 😁

I know the feeling. Being single I am always polishing my trumpet! 🤣

[Arganto]

Shame we don't have Apmex over in the UK, much more reasonable from them and you can even get bullet replicas for not a lot.

[Giuseppe1]

On 20/05/2020 at 17:50, freefall said:

Copper and gold are the only two elemental metals out of 84 that aren’t silver or grey. 

That's an excellent bit of info. To me, copper will always be special. Yes its mainly used in industry, but wait till it starts to run out and becomes as rare as silver. I have about 200kg of 999 copper wire, just waiting for prices to recover. In the meantime, I'm still out there bringing it home. I'll buy gold with the money after I sell.

[CarlosArt]

Interesting article and nicely presented blog, thank you.