Copper’s AI-driven demand is accelerating, but supply still moves on a 20-year timeline

Copper is sitting around $5.88–$5.92 per pound, with strong year-over-year gains and forecasts still pointing toward $10,000–$12,000 per tonne, with bullish scenarios even higher. What is driving this is not just cyclical recovery, but structural demand from AI data centers, electrification, EVs, and grid expansion. The problem is that supply cannot keep up. New copper mines typically take 18 to 30 years to develop, and existing operations are aging. Even if demand signals are clear today, supply response is locked into long timelines. That gap is where early-stage companies like NovaRed Mining (CSE: NRED / OTCQB: NREDF) start to matter. With a \~16,000-hectare land package in British Columbia and an enterprise value around $37M USD, it sits at the very beginning of the supply pipeline. The company has already secured over 2,062 hectares at the Plume target, with 2026 geophysics authorized, which gives it a defined path toward drill targeting. In a market where future copper supply is becoming harder to build, the earliest stages of discovery are where optionality begins to get priced. NFA