Does anyone care to speculate on who the more attractive investments/names would be beyond RIO and BHP?

Southern Peru Copper is probably the purest bet on copper; I personally dont own any, but own a different US based company.

I totally agree with you on China. Here is a tweet i wrote on the topic : Copper prices have skyrocketed since this summer (YTD + 22%) but almost nobody wrote that the catalyst for it appears to be ONE CHINESE SPECULATOR putting up hundreds of million USD bullish bets. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-copper-coal/chinese-coal-miner-piles-on-bullish-copper-bets-fuelling-rally-source-idUSKBN1CT17D?rpc=401& ….

Hi Christopher, while I dont disagree about speculators, Chinese demand of concentrates grows year after year. In 2016 concentrate/ore imports into China were 28% greater than 2015, and 2017 ytd is 2% stronger than 2016. The demand for concentrates/ore is there. This ore comes from the mines, simply mines are forced to shutdown if copper price is too low. Knowing this and planned smelter capacity, I remain a bull for a few years out...I know its easy to say......

Interesting.What economic growth trajectory does this factor in? Its obviously very late cycle and global GDP growth will be a risk at some point relatively soon (12 to 18 months?).

These numbers are basis a growth of refined copper consumption from period 2016-2035 of 1.4%; which to your point, will obviously be affected should GDP/IP come in. Physical players see copper defect coming in in mid 2020's.

Refined copper consumption *growth*

I will lastly add that many not in the copper market do not follow, and what I find to be the most important source of demand, being copper smelters. Smelters main feed is copper raw material aka concentrates. When market participants talk about copper, they are mostly referring to to a cathode. Before cathode there are many stages, mainly turning ore into concentrates by grinding/crushing ore and then treating through a chemical/flotation process, to a large degree come from South America ie Chile/Peru) and sending the concentrates to a smelter. Here is the interesting part. The sheer amount of smelters being built in China is astounding. I dont recall specific years, I think up until 2035, but approximately 60% of all new smelter capacity is being built in China. So while copper may have ups and downs the long term view in China is the need for concentrates. Further, India is planning on adding smelter capacity to the tune of 400K metric tons, which again, primary source of feed is concatenates, frankly there are not enough concentrates to go around! Treatment and refining charges are a discussion for a different time!

Would love to hear from Simon Hunt re: China. Beat my expectations but to be fair this was a trade that started in late June/July and is now in pullback/consolidation mode as some of your guests highlight. Agree with Weldon that we are in the early stages of commodity bull. Uranium's turn now. Also gold is setting up well. It pays to do the work on the smaller names.

More Bernd Sischka please.

If the west wont China will. Access to adequate volumes of fossil fuel can never be fully assured, despite any such given by Russia. They've been building out their high speed rail network for over a decade. They will be able to move large numbers long distances. Short distances will be covered by availability of abundant electric vehicles. They're big on solar and wind. Its a matter of national security/survival. To support this they will be building out their nuclear power network too. So, buy or dont buy a Tesla, as you like. There will be enough of a story in Asia to support the narrative, imo.

second the motion

Thank you Emil. very thought provoking questions and points.