What a pound of copper is worth right now
The direct answer to how much copper is worth per pound right now is 6.57 dollars, up 46.89% from a year earlier, Trading Economics reports. The price already touched a record 6.77 dollars a pound on August 7, 2026, after the Democratic Republic of Congo said it would ban copper concentrate exports to build up its own processing industry, Investing News Network reports. The live price is about 36.8% above the 2025 full year average, 4.80 dollars a pound, a MAOWCE calculation combining 2 sources. That 2025 average was itself a record at the time, the United States Geological Survey states.
This is the full year average each year, not a single day price. The 2025 figure is the estimate the government issued before the year closed.
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| 2021 | 4.24 |
| 2022 | 4.01 |
| 2023 | 3.86 |
| 2024 | 4.22 |
| 2025 | 4.80 |
The Democratic Republic of Congo export ban and a war pushed the price up fast
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the second largest copper producer in the world, and mined 3.2 million metric tons in 2025, Investing News Network reports. Its planned ban on copper concentrate exports, the partly processed ore refiners elsewhere depend on, triggered the August 7 record. A separate war has also cut the supply of sulfuric acid, a chemical copper refiners need to turn ore into refined metal.
These facilities, they do have sufficient inventories to cover production, but prolonged wartime can keep prices for almost every single thing higher for longer.
Mitzi Sumangil, associate commodity analyst at S and P Global, speaking in a company webinar named State of the Market. Source 5.
Why copper is so expensive right now, beyond one single day
World refined copper usage, the amount of finished copper the world actually consumes, climbed from 27.3 million metric tons in 2024 to a forecast 28.7 million metric tons in 2026, the International Copper Study Group states. The Group, whose members include most major copper producing and consuming countries, names energy transition, urbanisation, digitalisation including data centers, and manufacturing as demand supports, without ranking which matters most. Chinese investment in electricity grids has been the single largest contributor to copper demand growth over the last 2 years, the International Energy Agency states, and grids need copper wire to carry electricity from wind and solar farms to homes and factories.
The same industry group forecasts world refined production falling behind this usage total in 2026 for the first time in the 3 years shown, described in the body text.
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| 2024 | 27,328 |
| 2025 | 28,143 |
| 2026 | 28,729 |
The same Group published an April 2025 forecast predicting a 209,000 metric ton surplus for 2026. Its October update reverses that into a 150,000 metric ton deficit instead, a swing the press release blames on lower than expected production, not demand.
Computing, not clean energy, is a separate and growing driver. The commodities trader Trafigura estimates artificial intelligence data centers could add 1 million metric tons to copper demand by 2030, Investing News Network reports, a total kept separate here from grid and vehicle demand.
The supply gap through 2035
Even as demand climbs, the International Energy Agency projects the pipeline of announced mine projects will not keep up. Falling ore grades, meaning the share of mined rock that is actually copper, rising costs to build new mines, few new discoveries and long lead times point to a 30% gap between copper demand and supply by 2035, the Agency states.
This will be a major challenge. It's time to sound the alarm.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency. Source 5.