LME three-month copper closes at US$14,438.50 a tonne, above every June-quarter realized price

The London Metal Exchange's copper page showed a three-month closing price of US$14,438.50 a tonne, up 0.18% on the day, with the data marked valid for September 29 and 30, 2026; the LME quotes copper in U.S. dollars per tonne in 25-tonne lots [1]. The exchange's historical series and monthly averages sit behind a registration wall, so this note records the single data point a reader can see without one.

The level is high against the recent record of the filings. The U.S. Geological Survey put the average U.S. domestic refined copper price at 490 cents a pound for 2025, up from 431.8 cents in 2024 [2]. Teck realized US$6.05 a pound on its copper in the quarter ended June 30, 2026 [3], and Kamoa-Kakula, 39.6% owned by Ivanhoe Mines, realized US$5.99 a pound on 61,249 tonnes sold in the same quarter [4]. Converted to pounds, the end-September LME price sits above all three.

Why a U.S. reader should care is arithmetic, not forecasting. When Canadian copper producers report the September quarter, the period will have ended with a price above anything in the June-quarter filings, and a higher realized price widens margins only for tonnes actually sold. For Teck the tonnes are a merger question and for Ivanhoe a recovery question, and a copper price that has risen since June changes neither.