Record copper prices and expectations of a structural supply gap are bringing long-dormant mines back into play. According to a Reuters report by Solomon Cefai, datelined Singapore and published on October 15, 2026 via money.usnews.com, a growing number of idled copper operations around the world are being revived. The benchmark London Metal Exchange (LME) copper contract reached $14,875 a ton on September 10, a level that has made some previously shelved projects economically viable again.
Operators, however, say the main driver is the prospect of medium- to long-term shortages rather than current prices alone. The Mt Lyell mine in Tasmania offers a clear example. In 1899 it produced around 9,500 metric tons of copper, making it the largest copper mine in the British Empire at the time, although that figure is modest by today's standards.
After 12 years of inactivity, owner Sibanye-Stillwater approved a restart in September 2026. The company acquired the asset in 2023 for $10 million and expects to spend around $340 million on the restart, with plans to ramp up to 26,000 tons of annual output once the mine returns to production in 2029. Sibanye also says the mine will cost around $5,644 a ton to keep running and expects to employ about 300 people.
Barry Harris, executive vice president at Sibanye-Stillwater, told Reuters that the company has digitised more than a century of hand-drawn geological and mine plans, describing the documentation as “millimetre-perfect, but drawn by hand.” On a broader scale, consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is tracking almost one million tons of potential annual copper production from mine restarts by 2030, equivalent to more than 4% of current output. Roughly half of that potential comes from two projects: the large Cobre Panama project and the long-closed Panguna mine in Papua New Guinea. For both, the question of a restart depends as much on politics as on market conditions.
The market implications depend heavily on the type of supply response. Restarts of idled mines are generally small, but they benefit from existing infrastructure, known ore bodies and permitting histories, which allows them to reach production far sooner than new discoveries. S&P Global Energy estimates that new discoveries take an average of 17 years to reach production.
Craig Lang, principal analyst at CRU, said that “many of these operations are relatively small, but collectively they can make an important contribution to bridging the copper mine supply gap over the medium term.” Wood Mackenzie's historical analysis, however, indicates that the pool of viable restart candidates is “relatively small,” with revived mines averaging around 33,000 tons a year. By comparison, many extensions at existing mines produce more than 100,000 tons, which makes them more consequential for lifting overall supply. Demand growth is the other part of the equation.
S&P Global Energy projects global copper demand will rise 50% to 42 million tons a year by 2040, driven by the energy transition and data centres. The consultancy expects nearly half of new mine supply to come from restarts and expansions of existing resources, yet it still sees a possible structural shortfall of 10 million tons. Eillen Grace Dela Cruz, principal analyst at S&P Global Energy, said that “brownfield additions can buy the market valuable time, but they cannot replace the need for brand-new, world-class tier-1 discoveries to satisfy that scale of demand.” Projects elsewhere show the same mix of opportunity and risk.
In Zambia, partial production has resumed in the upper section of the Luanshya mine, which had been offline for more than two decades, and underground infrastructure is now being built, according to a Zambian mines ministry spokesperson. The mine is majority owned by China Nonferrous Mining Corp (CNMC) and targets 100,000 tons of annual production by 2030. In Argentina, Glencore has said it plans to revive its Alumbrera mine, shut since 2018, in the second half of 2027, producing a total of 75,000 tons of copper over four years.
The restart is intended to support the ramp-up of the undeveloped Agua Rica deposit nearby, which has the potential to produce more than 200,000 tons of copper per year. Reuters also notes several obstacles. Flooding, run-down plants, outdated tailings dams, local protests and stricter environmental rules could all delay or derail restart plans.
Charles Cooper, head of copper research at Wood Mackenzie, put it bluntly: “A dormant mine is not simply waiting for someone to turn the power back on. The key question is why the mine closed in the first place.” The Panguna mine in Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea that is seeking independence, illustrates this risk. Once among the world's largest open-pit copper mines, it has been shut since 1989, when a civil war broke out.
The regional government wants to reopen it, but a mining camp at Panguna was attacked in September, with personnel assaulted and equipment destroyed. Cooper said that “environmental, social and political issues can ultimately prove more challenging than the mining itself.” The Mt Lyell case also highlights the human and economic history behind these closures. The mine was shuttered in 2014 after three workers were killed in two accidents within six weeks of each other, costing about 200 jobs in Queenstown, a town of nearly 2,000 people.
A planned restart was shelved in 2015 when copper prices fell, and workers left the area; LME copper closed that year at $4,705 a ton. The new operation is planned to be highly automated, with some loaders operated remotely. Harris said some former workers have expressed interest in returning, adding that they will move “from very manual activities” to an operation “at modern industry standard, with digitisation and automation all the way through.” Source: Reuters, by Solomon Cefai, published October 15, 2026 (money.usnews.com).
Figures cited from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, S&P Global Energy and Wood Mackenzie, as reported by Reuters.
Source: money.usnews.com