Will the price of copper ever go up like silver and gold ?
Not likely, all metals have already topped out and any investment at this time is very risky. Scrap copper is about $1,75 per pound. New pure copper is about $3.00 or more per pound.
Total world production is about 15 million tons per year. Copper demand is increasing by more than 575,000 tons annually and accelerating. Based on 2006 figures for per capita consumption, Tom Graedel and colleagues at Yale University calculate that by 2100 global demand for copper will outstrip the amount extractable from the ground. China accounts for more than 22% of world copper demand. However copper is often recycled so the supply of copper from scrap would increase as the price increases. Secondly, as the price rises, the industrial world has an incentive to substitute other metals for copper. For example the humble US cent - once made 95% from copper is now.. Copper-plated zinc, 1982 to date. In mid-1982, the coin's composition was changed again, this time to copper-plated zinc. The last mostly-copper cents (95% copper metal composition) were produced by the Denver Mint on October 22, 1982. The copper-plated coins are still being produced today. They are composed of an inner core alloy of 99.2% zinc and 0.8% copper with an outer plating of pure copper, for an overall composition of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper... (wikipedia) So you can't say never but the possibility is very remote.
