Antofagasta lifts copper cash cost guidance to $2.60–$2.70/lb

Antofagasta raised its full-year copper cash cost guidance to $2.60–$2.70 a pound from $2.40–$2.60, citing higher global diesel prices, Mining.com reported on Oct. 23.

Mining.com ties the squeeze to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, which have affected shipments of LNG and other energy and raised prices globally. Fuel matters twice over for a producer, since it powers extraction and moves metal from mine site to market. The report also places the cost adjustment against tariffs and inflation.

For allocators who hold miners through equity sleeves or natural-resource funds, published cash cost guidance is the number that decides how much of a copper price move reaches the equity. Antofagasta's new range sits 10 cents higher at the top and 20 cents higher at the bottom than the range it replaced, so the gap between cost and price is narrower at any given metal price. That makes the guidance range, rather than a quarterly production total, the line to pull from a holdings review.

Barrick's gold production cost rose 17% between 2025 and 2026 partly because of higher fuel costs, and record gold prices still let it lift attributable adjusted EBITDA 51% year on year to $2.55 billion in Q2 2026, according to the report. Mining.com names Kinross Gold and Monument Mining among the producers that relied on stronger bullion prices to protect margins.

Ivanhoe Mines absorbed an 18-cent-a-pound equivalent diesel cost increase at Kamoa-Kakula and still generated $385 million of Q2 EBITDA, helped by stronger copper prices and smelter economics, the report says. "Despite elevated global diesel prices during the quarter, the impact on our operating costs has been well contained," Ivanhoe founder and co-chairman Robert Friedland said in the company's 2026 Q2 results release. "Our world-class smelter at Kamoa-Kakula provides a natural hedge while flows through the Strait of Hormuz remain constrained."

Capstone Copper reported a 15% year-on-year increase in second-quarter costs, the report says. Mining.com frames the results as a widening divide between producers with commodity-price gains or valuable by-products to absorb higher fuel bills and those more exposed to energy costs.

TD Cowen analysts warned in March 2026 that surging energy prices threatened historic margin expansion, estimating a 15% year-on-year increase in all-in sustaining costs and 22% higher all-in costs. Mining.com adds that with interest rates rising and supply concerns easing, metals prices are starting to fall.

Costs repriced upward while the metal price softens is the combination the report puts in front of allocators. Whether other producers follow Antofagasta in lifting their ranges, or hold them and absorb the fuel bill, is the open question the next round of quarterly results answers.