3 best copper stocks to consider as metal rally continues

Investing.com -- Stifel told clients in a note this week that copper investors should be positioning for where the market is heading, not where it is today.

Analyst Cole McGill opened his note by arguing that the current setup in copper equities “has the potential to benefit forward-thinking.”

According to Stifel, 2025 may have been “a demand battleground story,” but 2026 increasingly looks like a supply-driven market.

The firm highlights “the fragility of legacy supply,” with the average grade of the top 20 copper mines down 9% over the last two decades and smelters “indicating a very tight concentrate market” as treatment charges collapse.

Despite record prices, Stifel says sector valuations “continue to favour buying vs building new supply.”

Against this backdrop, Stifel named its top three stock ideas: Foran Mining, Atex Resources and Meridian Mining.

McGill says Foran’s 2026 production ramp “has seen ~20bps P/NAV expansion” in similar cases. “We think the complexity of ramping a 5ktpd mine/mill is significantly less than larger-scale Canadian operations, with history suggesting a quicker path to design throughput,” the analyst wrote.

For Meridian Mining, Stifel sees “a strong rerating story through 2026 as Cabacal marches through engineering and permitting milestones.”

Meanwhile, McGill says Atex offers leverage to high-grade exploration.

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