800,000 tons of mud probably just made electronics a little more expensive

Accident causes major copper mine to suspend operations, as commodity and share prices soar

In recent years technology buyers have endured hardware price rises due to a pandemic and its impact on supply chains, the global wave of inflation that followed, tariffs, and surging demand for AI technologies that allowed vendors to charge higher prices. Now, 800,000 tons of mud has pushed copper prices higher.

The mud slid into the Grasberg Block Cave mine (GBC) in Indonesia, the source of around three percent of the world’s copper. Two people died in the September 8th accident, and five remain missing. The mine’s operator, Freeport-McMoRan, suspended operations at the mine, and yesterday advised that while the incident only impacted one of the production blocks at the mine, it also damaged other infrastructure at the site. The company therefore thinks its Q4 sales of copper and gold will be “insignificant”, instead of its previous forecast to ship 445 million pounds of copper and 345,000 ounces of gold.

News of the incident saw the price of copper jump three percent to $10,300 a ton, and the share prices of other copper miners surge. The metal cost around $8,900 a ton at the start of 2025.

Copper is marvelously conductive, which is why it’s used in almost all electronic devices, It’s also useful in many of the technologies used to replace fossil fuel as an energy source. Analysts therefore predict worldwide demand for copper will double to 50 million tons a year by 2035 but also feel miners will struggle to deliver. That prediction, by the way, came before the AI boom, which by driving demand for millions of servers has likely increased hunger for copper.

Interest in recycling copper is therefore increasing, leading telcos to consider whether they might dig up their old cabling and sell it.

Tech supply chains are long, and copper is often a small part of a device's bill of materials. It may therefore be a long time before the rising price of copper makes a noticeable impact on your bills other than when making big purchases of copper-intense products like cabling. But as we’ve recently reported, tech companies sometimes increase prices because they think they can get away with it. ®