Western Copper and Gold COO Paul West-Sells on Long-term Copper Prices

Investing News recently spoke with Western Copper and Gold (TSX:WRN,NYSEMKT:WRN) president and COO Dr. Paul West-Sells about the current copper price environment and what it means for Western Copper’s Casino project in Canada’s Yukon.
Copper prices have fallen about 16 percent so far this year, hitting $2.47 per pound on Monday. The red metal hit a six-year low earlier this month alongside a rapid fall in the Chinese stock market.
That isn’t great news for copper companies, but West-Sells stated that the Casino project will be resilient enough to bring returns in such a copper price environment. “We actually ran our financials at $2.50 copper and other spot commodity prices, and the Casino project is so robust it still has an internal rate of return of 18 percent,” he said. “We’ve got a project that really makes sense [for] any sort of realistic commodity price environment.”
And while market watchers are fairly divided on the short-term outlook for copper prices, West-Sells said that he’s looking further ahead to 2020, where he sees consensus forecasts for tight supply. “That market is very clearly in significant deficit,” he said. “At that time, there’s a real consensus in terms of the fact that there’s a supply deficit, and we’re going to need significant copper production and copper mines like Casino.”
West-Sells also spoke about Western Copper and Gold’s recently signed cooperation agreement with the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and about what investors can expect next from the company in terms of progress at Casino. Watch the video above for more of what the president had to say.

Securities Disclosure: I, Teresa Matich, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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Western Copper and Gold is a client of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.