Anglo American and Antofagasta, two of the world’s leading mining companies, were the worst performers in the FTSE 100 index yesterday as they cast a shadow over the prospects for mineral production and prices this year. Anglo shares fell 356½p, or 8.8 per cent, to £36.79 and Antofagasta’s were down 116p, or 67.1 per cent, at £15.20, partly a result of the shares going ex-dividend.
While weather and Covid affected production in both cases, there is also a worrying outlook for prices amid murky economic forecasts. That is bad for miners, providers of the world’s building blocks.
The copper price has stood still for several months as many builders and manufacturers put plans on hold. While yesterday’s announcements were only production reports, they were considerably
