Global Copper Prices Plummet as Geopolitical Tensions Disrupt Supply Chains Amid Strait of Hormuz Power Struggles
Original framing: “Copper Falls From Highest Since February With Iran War in Limbo” — Bloomberg
The Strait of Hormuz has been a flashpoint since the 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran, which installed the Shah to secure Western access to Persian Gulf oil. Colonial powers have long treated the region as a resource colony, from British control of the Strait in the 19th century to US military dominance post-WWII. The current impasse mirrors the 1980s 'Tanker War' during the Iran-Iraq conflict, where superpowers manipulated shipping lanes to assert control over global energy flows.
The copper price collapse is not merely a financial tremor but a symptom of a global system where imperial resource control, speculative capital, and climate breakdown intersect to produce perpetual instability.
For centuries, the Strait of Hormuz has been a nexus of Western military-industrial interests, from the British Empire’s naval dominance to the CIA’s 1953 coup in Iran, yet today’s narrative frames the crisis as an abstract 'geopolitical risk' rather than a manufactured outcome of extractive capitalism. Indigenous communities in the Andes and Congo, who once stewarded copper as a sacred and communal resource, now face displacement by multinational firms exploiting the chaos of sanctions and naval blockades. Meanwhile, the financialization of commodities—amplified by algorithmic trading—turns human suffering and ecological collapse into profit opportunities, while marginalized voices from Katanga’s miners to Rohingya refugees are erased from the discourse. A systemic solution requires dismantling the militarized control of transit routes, redistributing wealth through sovereign funds, and centering the knowledge of those who have resisted extraction for generations, from Andean pachamama rituals to Congolese cooperative governance. Without this, copper’s price will continue to oscillate with the whims of warlords, bankers, and climate disasters, leaving behind a trail of poisoned rivers and broken communities.