Source: Financial Times, 13th January 2011

Most people would not bother to pick up a copper coin on the street, but the metal's value has reached fever pitch in the commodities market. The latest casualties of copper-fever are Canadian miners Inmet and Lundin which have decided to stitch themselves together in a C$9bn merger. The nil-premium, all-share deal is not about financial engineering. Rather, as about four-fifths of the combined company's production will be copper, it will have greater clout to take advantage of a copper price that has more than tripled since its 2008 low.