Copper is reshaping the global mining profit map! Harmony (HMY.US) is shifting from gold champion to betting on the explosive demand for copper.

As global mining companies have expanded into the industrial metal sector, with a focus on copper, which is essential for energy transition and AI data center construction, Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. Sponsored ADR, a company that has traditionally focused on gold exploration and mining, disclosed for the first time in its performance report for the first half of the fiscal year ending in December the performance expansion brought by copper. With the trend of AI data centers and electrification pushing copper as a "hard demand" metal, Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. Sponsored ADR is actively following in the footsteps of mining giants such as BHP Group Ltd Sponsored American Depositary Receipt Repr 2 Shs and Barrick Mining, seeking to significantly increase its exposure to the global copper demand cycle. The African largest-scale gold mining company listed in Johannesburg, South Africa, announced that in the six months ending in December, the CSA mine in Australia produced 3,913 tons of copper concentrate. This is equivalent to slightly more than two months of production capacity of this asset after Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. Sponsored ADR officially completed its acquisition on October 24. While gold remains Harmony's core business, the copper metal business may be the next super growth engine. As the largest gold producer in South Africa, Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. Sponsored ADR is enhancing its exposure to the copper metal business through its two large projects in Australia, to capitalize on the strong growth opportunities brought by the rising prices and demand for this industrial metal, which is essential for electrification and AI infrastructure. In addition to acquiring the CSA mine in New South Wales, the company also started construction of the Eva copper mine in Queensland, Australia at the end of last year. "Gold remains Harmony's core business," the company stated in its biannual performance report released on Wednesday. The company emphasized that the transition to copper metal trends will allow this traditional gold miner to benefit from the "long-term demand for metals oriented towards future growth prospects". Despite a decrease in production, Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. Sponsored ADR's overall net profit increased by nearly a quarter to 9.7 billion South African Rand (approximately $597 million). Gold has been on a record-breaking surge as investors turn to safe-haven assets amid political turmoil from GEO Group Inc, with prices nearly doubling since the beginning of last year. Similarly, copper prices have also surged strongly, with LME copper futures prices rising by nearly 50% since the second half of 2025. Harmony expects CSA to produce up to 18,500 tons of copper concentrate in the 12 months ending in June. The company plans to invest up to $1.75 billion over three years to develop the Eva super mine. Once the second Australian asset is fully operational, Harmony's goal is to increase annual copper production to a significant 100,000 tons. The South African mining giant is also actively investing in extending the lifespans of its two flagship gold mines in South Africa and announced the distribution of a record mid-term dividend to shareholders, totaling 3.4 billion Rand. Copper may be the most core asset to drive future profit expansion for mining giants. The reason why copper, an essential industrial metal, has seen increasing demand since 2025 is primarily due to the rapid growth in new AI data centers and expansions, which not only involve the purchase of GPUs, but also technology giants working hard to build a complete set of high-power, high-reliability large-scale artificial intelligence infrastructure. The higher the power density of the computational clusters, the more transformers, switching devices, busbars, cables, and cooling-related distribution systems a data center needs; and copper, with its high conductivity, thermal conductivity, and processing adaptability, almost runs through every layer from "grid connection - data center park distribution - server room power supply - server internal connection". The current global financial market is extremely convinced that "copper is not only a short-term commodity, but also a fundamental production element in the AI data center, transmission and distribution, energy storage, and electric vehicle chain, as well as a strategic resource necessary for economic independence and development under the background of political turmoil from GEO Group Inc". A forecasting report from S&P Global, Inc. shows that by 2040, new demands in AI data centers, defense, and Siasun Robot & Automation will drive global copper demand to grow by 50% from current levels; the latest research report published by S&P Global, Inc. indicates that the global copper supply gap is expected to expand to 10 million tons by 2040, with demand rising to 42 million tons, an increase of 50% from current levels. More urgently, a forecast from ING Groep NV Sponsored ADR group (ING) shows that by 2026, the refined copper shortage will reach 600,000 tons, continuing the trend of a supply gap of 200,000 tons in 2025. At the same time, a study by the IEA indicates that the global annual growth rate of electricity demand from 2025 to 2030 will be significantly higher than in the past decade, and the rapid expansion of AI data centers is one of the key drivers. More importantly, the core demand drive for copper has shifted from traditional real estate and manufacturing cycles to a dual structural drive of "AI electrification + energy transition". The IEA clearly refers to copper as one of the "cornerstones" of all power-related technologies, stating that in the energy transition scenario, the demand for copper in the power grid will double at least from 2020; its data also shows that annual copper demand in the power grid sector will increase from 5 million tons in 2020 to 7.5 million tons by 2040, approaching 10 million tons if the energy transition accelerates. In other words, copper is not only urgently needed for solar power, wind power, and electric vehicles, but also the "conductive metal" necessary for transmitting, stabilizing, connecting to AI data centers, and final loads of these electrical systems. This also means that the unprecedented momentum of AI has not replaced the logic of energy transition; instead, it has raised the already tight demand for electrification of copper to a higher level. This is why recently, global large mining companies including BHP Group Ltd Sponsored American Depositary Receipt Repr 2 Shs and Harmony Gold have been actively increasing their copper business exposure, highlighting that copper is transitioning from being an "attractive growth metal" to the "most core asset that determines future profit growth".