They also argue that, with the copper price falling, a renegotiation might leave the government in a worse position.
Under present copper price assumptions, Barrick reduced its production expectations and hence profitability over the life of the mine.
FORBES: Barrick Gold Can Still Sparkle Despite Higher Costs And Impairment Charges In Results
It was bad luck that the copper price slumped as Zambia's government dithered over the sale of its mines.
Last year was a good one for metal thievery (in Germany and beyond) because the copper price was so high.
The state budget is tailored to achieve a surplus of 1% of GNP, with a copper price at its long term value.
"Theft in price-volatile markets: On the relationship between copper price and copper theft", by Aiden Sidebottom, Jyoti Belur, Kate Bowers, Lisa Thompson and Shane Johnson.
Given a copper price last year well over twice the estimated long term price, Chile had a fiscal surplus of the order of 9% of GNP.
That is because it has stuck to a rigorous fiscal rule drawn up by its predecessor requiring it to save much of the revenue gained when the copper price rises.
Going by the copper price data on the London Metal Exchange, the average realized price of copper for Freeport is likely to be lower this quarter on a sequential and year-over-year basis.
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In Chile a fiscal law obliges the government to run budget surpluses whenever the economy is at full employment and the copper price is above its long-run equilibrium, as estimated by an independent panel.
Though these early efforts to take the heat out of the market were unsuccessful, on Wednesday the copper price dropped by more than 2% on news that the SRB was seeking permission to export up to 200, 000 tonnes of the metal.
But if they had been sold five years earlier, the buyer might have had time to invest and dig down to the lucrative deep deposits while the copper price was high, and would then have stayed in business for another decade at least.
Moreover, key proxies for global growth such as the price of copper and oil have established firm price support and have not yet broken through them.
The stock has performed pretty nicely thus far in 2012, but it was an absolute dog in 2011, and the price of copper is very important to the share price here.
Arbitrarily lowering the regulated price of the copper network would kneecap the competitive price umbrella for fiber broadband service thus destroying the economic return on investment case needed to fund the fiber upgrade?
Copper has seen price declines of 24% since last August and 14% just since February.
Barclays Capital said given that copper saw significant price-gains in January, the market could be ripe for selling.
Copper saw a price drop and also saw speculators slice net-long positions accordingly.
FORBES: FOCUS: Speculators Start Buying Precious Metals Futures, Options Again -CFTC
The economy is more diverse than it was but still relies on copper, whose price has slumped by around 40% since early September.
The US, Britain and the EU now all make pennies and cents out of steel with a copper plating as copper rose in price making brass and bronze worth more than face value.
And a few mines, some say, have given priority to producing associated metals such as molybdenum, which is mined in tandem with copper and whose price has increased even faster than the bigger metal's.
The price of copper, for instance, has gone down over fears that the economic recovery might stall.
Thus money managers have helped to drive the price of copper up over the last two weeks.
FORBES: Focus: Speculators Continue To Favor PGM Futures, Options; Modest Interest In Gold -- CFTC
Phelps Dodge can now make a profit if copper stays near this price.
Although the price of copper has dropped about 20% this year, most major metals prices are still near historic highs.
Since that date, the population has tripled, and both the real price of copper and copper production have fallen by half.
The price of copper is especially vulnerable to swings in market sentiment.
Reflecting the economic confidence, the price of copper, an industrial metal closely tied to global growth prospects, gained 1.4% to a three-month high.
Does the rising price of copper then reflect strengthening global growth?
Copper Mountain started the price war three years ago by offering a season pass allowing four family members to ski for close to the price of one.
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