Analyst Simon Hunt expects lower prices will soon be seen in an “increasingly volatile marketplace for the metal”; and, with the global economy facing a renewed downturn, prices may dive from 2011 onwards – indeed, may actually collapse by then. Not good news at all for the world’s leading copper mining companies – Codelco Freeport (which together produced around 20% of global output in 2008) followed by BHP Billiton, Xstrata, Rio Tinto and Anglo American (with just over the same amount dug up between them).
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=9334.