'Dawn of the copper age': Robert Friedland explains why red metal prices are set to double

The world is standing at the edge of a massive commodities supercycle, driven by an insatiable hunger for artificial intelligence and electrification. According to Robert Friedland, founder and co-chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, surging production costs and unprecedented demand mean copper prices are poised to surge even further.

Speaking at the Future Minerals Forum 2026 in Saudi Arabia this January, 2026, the mining veteran painted a deeply bullish picture for the red metal. While crude oil prices have remained stagnant around $53 a barrel over the last five years, Friedland noted in his presentation, ‘Dawn of the Copper Age’, that copper has soared to an all-time high in nominal terms at $13,400 during the same period.

A massive catalyst for this commodities rally is the explosion of AI data centers. By the end of 2026, global data centres will consume as much electricity as Japan, the world's third-largest economy, he noted. Friedland highlighted a recent Microsoft "baby data center" in Chicago that required 2 million kilograms of copper alone.

“Each of those Tesla servers needs gold, iron, gallium, antimony, tungsten, silver, several rare earth elements, indium, tantalum, palladium, barium, niobium, and titanium,” he said.

Even without factoring in the green energy transition or the dreams of AI centers, the historical supply deficit is alarming. “To maintain our current lifestyle, to keep the world going exactly as it has been going, we need to mine another 700 million metric tons in the next 18 years,” Friedland said. To put that massive figure into perspective, that is the exact same amount of copper humanity has mined in the 10,000 years since coming out of the caves.

Friedland highlighted that meeting this colossal future demand will require bringing six new tier one copper mines online every single year through 2050. 40 per cent of that new production will be swallowed entirely by grid upgrades, electrification, and data centers.

“Since 1900, the energy we need to produce a unit of copper is up 16 fold and the amount of water we need to make a unit of copper has doubled,” he said.

“And so it's very clear that the copper price must double to meet future mining needs,” he added.