Hudbay Minerals president and CEO Peter Kukielski warned at RBC Capital Markets’ 2025 Global Mining and Materials Conference that copper supply could fall short of growing demand from electrification and data centers. He cited chronic underinvestment and roughly 15-year development timelines for new mines as constraints on expanding production.
“Long term, with the lack of new copper supply and chronic underinvestment in the space, we believe that supply will be unable to meet demand – especially with the growing demand from electrification initiatives and powering data centers,” Kukielski said.
The warning represents Hudbay’s assessment. The remarks reproduced from the conference do not quantify copper demand from data centers or establish data centers’ contribution to copper price movements in 2025.
Hudbay’s expansion plans
Kukielski identified the United States as the main source of Hudbay’s expected future copper growth. Its development projects include Copper World in Arizona, where the company announced on January 2, 2025, that it had received an air-quality permit from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Hudbay described it as the final major permit required to develop and operate the project’s first phase.
In its January announcement, Hudbay projected average annual production of 85,000 tonnes of copper over an initial 20-year mine life. The company said it planned to advance feasibility studies and financing during 2025 toward a project sanctioning decision in 2026. Its approval plan required meeting feasibility and financing conditions.
The Canadian miner acquired Copper Mountain Mining Corporation on June 20, 2023. It subsequently bought Mitsubishi Materials Corporation’s 25% interest in the Copper Mountain mine in British Columbia, completing that transaction on April 30, 2025, and taking full ownership of the mine. Hudbay’s operating portfolio also includes Constancia in Peru and Snow Lake in Manitoba.
Kukielski also said teams at Hudbay’s Constancia mill deployed automated systems. The reproduced conference remarks did not include measured productivity gains.
Precious metals and interest rates
Separately, silver reached a record $60.9213 an ounce on December 10, 2025, after crossing $60 for the first time on December 9. Gold was above $4,200 an ounce on December 8, compared with about $2,600 at the start of 2025—a rise of roughly 60%.
The Federal Reserve lowered its federal funds rate target range by a quarter percentage point to 3.5%–3.75% on December 10. The decision followed quarter-point reductions on September 17 and October 29.
In its December statement, the Fed said inflation remained somewhat elevated and that further rate adjustments would depend on incoming data, the economic outlook and the balance of risks.
