Are Copper Stocks Poised for Big Gains Amid Global Grid Crisis?
Contributed Opinion

1. As of the date of this article, officers, contractors, shareholders, and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Midnight Sun.
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There has been a lot of attention for resource investors on the war and energy, as well as the gold and silver correction, while copper has been in what I call a stealth bull market. It is not getting much attention.

This is a weekly Comex chart, and there was a one-day spike at the end of January, but copper made new closing highs on the weekly chart in April.

According to European Business Magazine, as of April 2026, approximately half of all planned U.S. data center builds this year are projected to be delayed or canceled outright because the electrical grid cannot support them. The data center power crisis reframes the entire AI investment narrative in ways that European policymakers and institutional investors have not yet fully absorbed.

Of around 140 large-scale data center projects representing approximately 12 gigawatts of power planned to go live in the US in 2026, only a third are under construction. The problem compounds further into 2027.

The specific choke point is electrical components — transformers, switchgear, and batteries that are essential to every data center build. Delivery of high-power transformers took 24 to 30 months before 2020. Waiting periods can now stretch to as long as five years.

Enormous amounts of copper will be needed to upgrade the power grid. The amount of copper in just the transformers is massive. A standard 500 kVA power transformer typically contains between 290 kilograms and 360 kilograms (approx. 640 to 795 pounds) of copper and a 1000 kVA Transformer, approximately 550-630 kg.

Most investors are unaware of the huge copper shortage that is about to evolve and the resulting high prices. Our copper stocks are a mixed bag, but most are still affected by the recent correction.

Element 29 

^{Recent Price - CA$1.30}

^{Entry Price - CA$0.63}

^{Opinion - Hold}

Element 29 Resources Inc. (ECU:TSX.V; EMTRF:OTC) took advantage of robust markets and closed a large non-brokered private placement and issued 32,245,269 common shares of the company at a price of CA$1.10 per share for aggregate gross proceeds of CA$35,469,796.

Richard Osmond, president and chief executive officer, stated: "We would like to thank our existing shareholders for their continued support, and we are pleased to welcome Alpayana SAC, led by chair Alejandro Gubbins, as a new strategic investor with a 9.9-per-cent interest in the company. Alpayana has a long history of mining in Peru, with a strong track record of value creation and deep in-country operational expertise. We are also pleased to welcome Randy Smallwood into the financing. Together, their participation represents a strong endorsement of the company and our Peru copper portfolio, strengthening our technical and financial position as we advance our projects toward potential Tier 1 discoveries in a world-class mining jurisdiction."

Funds will be used to fund their advanced Peru projects. The last drill results at Elida continue to return long intervals of Cu-Mo-Ag mineralization beginning near surface, highlighting potential for further resource expansion. Reported intercepts represent downhole lengths; true widths are not known at this time.

Highlights – ELID041

• 7 m grading 0.38% CuEq2 (0.31% Cu, 0.02% Mo, and 2.22 g/t Ag), from 29.8 meters ("m") depth

It looked like the stock was going to break above CA$1.40, but failed to do so.

Midnight Sun 

Recent Price – CA$1.22

Entry Price - CA$0.27

Opinion - Hold

Haywood put an update out on Midnight Sun Mining Corp. (MMA:TSX.V; MDNGF:OTCQB) last week.

Here are a few highlights of their report:

MMA has broken through the backlog of assays and could have drill results this week on about 29 holes. There remains a large backlog of holes to assay and release results, with 46 more holes in process at SGS Labs in Zambia.

There have been persistent QA/QC issues with the core samples submitted to SGS labs in Zambia, so MMA is transitioning its Dumbwa core for assays to Intertek Testing Services in Perth, Australia. The company has already worked with Intertek for metallurgical testing at Dumbwa, so MMA is expanding that relationship.

Drilling with four rigs is proceeding well, having covered 5.3km of strike length at Dumbwa to date, which is mostly mineralized. MMA drillers have now collared hole #200. In addition to the drilling along the north-south strike, MMA is planning 20 holes to the east of the main trend. MMA expects to finish drilling this summer to define a footprint of ~12km long by 400m wide.

MMA's plan is to release an initial resource on the project by 4Q26, based on drilling over ~8km of strike. In general, MMA estimates that the deposit contains approximately 100Mt of ore per kilometer of strike length, so based on the expected amount of drilling, Haywood believes the resource could be in the range of 700Mt grading 0.4-0.5% Cu to a depth of 175m.

MMA has initiated discussions for the sale of its Kazhiba Main Oxide Copper Deposit, which contains a resource of 2.33Mt of Indicated mineral resources grading 1.41% copper at a cut-off of 0.10 % Cu over all rock type categories, for 72.3Mlbs of contained copper within ore that is near surface, unconsolidated, and leachable. Haywood believes this asset, located within 10km of the Kansanshi SX-EW mill, which currently treats oxide ore from the Kansanshi mine, could be sold for ~CA$60M by mid-year. For now, MMA has CA23.5M in cash, with another CA$18M of in-the-money warrants that expire in May 2027.

It sounds like the last half of 2026 will be very exciting for MMA. We were fortunate with timing to take profits at CA$1.95 and are now just holding as the project advances.

Capstone 

^{Recent Price - CA$11.26}

^{Entry Price - CA$5.90}

^{Opinion - Hold}

Last week, Capstone Copper Mining Corp. (CS:TSX) reported Q1 results with consolidated total contained copper production for Q1 2026 was 47,960 tonnes at C1 cash costs of CA$2.66/lb, Net income attributable to shareholders of CA$102.5 million, or CA$0.13 per share for Q1 2026.

CS had record adjusted net income attributable to shareholders of CA$94.8 million, or CA$0.12 per share, for Q1 2026 and record adjusted EBITDA of CA$329.1 million for Q1 2026 compared to CA$179.9 million for Q1 2025, primarily due to higher realized copper prices and supported by stronger gold and silver prices.

Operating cash flow before changes in working capital of CA$217.9 million in Q1 2026, compared to CA$166.1 million in Q1 2025.

2026 production guidance of 200,000 to 230,000 tonnes of copper and C1 cash cost guidance of CA$2.45 to CA$2.75 per payable pound of copper is unchanged. 2026 capital expenditure, capitalized stripping, and exploration expenditure guidance is also unchanged. CS continues to monitor and manage the impacts stemming from the conflict in the Middle East.

To date, they have not experienced any inventory or operational impacts, but cost pressures, notably from higher diesel and sulfuric acid prices, represent a headwind. CS estimates that for every 10% that the oil price is above US$60, it will add about 2 cents per pound copper in costs.

The stock corrected with the war correction, as copper corrected at first and then recovered. Copper seems to be torn between high demand with electrification and demand cuts if the war causes a recession and/or manufacturing slow down. It's strange that the rest of the market is ignoring a growth slowdown.

Zonte Metals

^{Recent Price - CA$0.10}

^{Entry Price - CA$0.09}

^{Opinion – Strong Buy}

Zonte Metals Inc. (ZON:TSXV; EREPF:OTC) is probably the best buy among our copper explorers because of a unique situation.

The stock corrected with the market in February/March but was hit with a lot of additional selling pressure.

This is the warrant list from the last financials, and we can see there were about 6 million in cheap 11 to 15-cent warrants set to expire in April and May 3 (this weekend).

The warrants were from past financings, and this put significant downward pressure on the stock.

I don't know how many got exercised before the stock plunged, but the important thing, there is no more pressure on the stock.

On the chart, there is strong support around 9 cents, so probably little downside from here. The stock was oversold with RSI (not shown here) dipping under 25 on the down move. Now that selling pressure from the cheap warrants is over, I expect the stock to start recovering to the 20-cent area.

This is a very good buying opportunity.