So here's the latest metal muddle. Workers at three of Southern Copper's
Production outages, of course, support the price of copper as stockpiles fall. So it's a great time to own a copper producer, so long as its operations aren't being disrupted.
I see a situation here analogous to oil-refinery outages. You want to own a refiner when the other guys' facilities are going haywire. The only problem is that we have no clue whether Valero
Clearly, it's a bit different with copper, because we have the benefit of geography to differentiate between producers. Freeport McMoRan
Canadian producer Taseko Mines
The big trade-off here is that Taseko has only one producing mine, diminishing the reduction of operational risk you might hope to achieve by avoiding labor strife. If you consider this miner for your copper investing dollar, you'd better know the Gibraltar mine inside out, because the company's other properties are years away from moving into production.