Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited is expanding its operations into copper, a metal critical for the energy transition and the booming construction of AI data centers. For the first time, the company's financial results for the six months ending December included contributions from its copper business. As AI infrastructure and electrification trends solidify copper's status as a metal with "hard demand," Harmony Gold is actively following the lead of mining giants like BHP and Barrick Gold, aiming to significantly increase its exposure to the global copper demand cycle.
The Johannesburg-listed gold miner, the largest of its kind in Africa, reported that its recently acquired CSA Mine in Australia produced 3,913 metric tons of copper concentrate during the period. This output represents slightly more than two months of production following the official acquisition of the asset on October 24th.
While gold remains Harmony Gold's core business, copper is positioned to become its next major growth engine. The company is boosting its exposure to copper through two major projects in Australia to capitalize on strong growth opportunities driven by rising prices and surging demand for this essential industrial metal. In addition to the CSA Mine acquisition in New South Wales, the company also began construction on the Eva Copper Project in Queensland late last year.
"Gold remains Harmony Gold's core business," the company stated in its half-year results released on Wednesday. It emphasized that the strategic shift towards copper will allow the traditional gold miner to "benefit from the long-term demand for metals with future-facing growth prospects."
Compared to the previous period, Harmony Gold's actual gold production for the last six months of 2025 fell by 9% to 724,000 ounces. This decline was primarily due to unexpected mechanical failures at the Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea and challenges in sourcing cyanide for its South African operations.
Despite the production drop, the company's overall net profit surged by nearly a quarter to 9.7 billion South African Rand (approximately $597 million). Gold has been on a record-breaking rally as geopolitical turmoil drives investors towards safe-haven assets, with its price nearly doubling since the beginning of last year. Concurrently, copper prices have also shown strong gains, buoyed by the energy transition and AI infrastructure boom, with LME copper futures rising nearly 50% since the second half of 2025.
Harmony Gold forecasts that the CSA Mine will produce up to 18,500 metric tons of copper concentrate in the 12 months ending this 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 becomes operational, Harmony Gold aims to increase its annual copper production to a full 100,000 metric tons.
The South African mining giant is also actively investing to extend the operational life of its two flagship gold mines in South Africa and announced a record interim dividend payout to shareholders, totaling 3.4 billion Rand.
Copper is increasingly seen as potentially the most critical asset for driving future profit expansion for mining giants. The surge in demand for this vital industrial metal since 2025 is largely attributed to the AI data center construction frenzy. This trend involves tech giants building entire ecosystems of high-power, highly reliable, large-scale AI infrastructure, not just procuring GPUs. Higher power density in computing clusters necessitates more transformers, switchgear, busbars, cables, and related power distribution and cooling systems. Copper, due to its high conductivity, thermal properties, and adaptability, is essential at every stage, from grid connection to data center campus distribution, server room power supply, and internal server connections.
Financial markets are now convinced that copper is not merely a short-cycle commodity but a fundamental production factor for AI data centers, power transmission, energy storage, and electric vehicles. It is also viewed as a strategic resource essential for economic self-reliance amid geopolitical instability.
A forecast by S&P Global indicates that new demand from AI data centers, defense, and robotics could push global copper demand 50% above current levels by 2040. The same report projects a global copper supply deficit widening to 10 million metric tons by 2040, with demand soaring to 42 million metric tons. More urgently, a forecast from ING suggests a refined copper deficit of 600,000 metric tons in 2026, continuing the 200,000-ton deficit trend from 2025.
Concurrently, an IEA study notes that the average annual growth rate of global electricity demand from 2025 to 2030 will be significantly higher than in the past decade, with the massive expansion of AI data centers being a key driver. Crucially, the core drivers of copper demand have shifted from traditional real estate and manufacturing cycles to a dual structural pull from "AI electrification + energy transition."
The IEA explicitly identifies copper as a "cornerstone" of all electricity-related technologies. It notes that, under energy transition scenarios, copper demand for grid lines will at least double compared to 2020 levels. IEA data also shows that annual copper demand from the grid sector could rise from 5 million metric tons in 2020 to 7.5 million metric tons by 2040, potentially approaching 10 million metric tons with a faster energy transition.
In essence, copper is not only crucial for solar, wind power, and electric vehicles but is also the essential "conduit metal" for transmitting this electricity, stabilizing grids, and connecting power to AI data centers and end-user loads. This means the unprecedented momentum from AI does not replace the energy transition narrative but instead adds another layer of demand atop an already tight market for electrification-driven copper.
This explains why major global miners, including BHP and Harmony Gold, are proactively increasing their exposure to copper. This trend underscores copper's evolution from an "attractive growth metal" to arguably "the most critical asset determining future profit growth rates."
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