Video News/Digging Deep

Rick Rule, President and CEO of Rule Investment Media, says the copper industry faces a structural funding challenge that could reshape mine finance for the next decade. Speaking with Kitco Mining’s Digging Deep, Rule said “the copper industry requires at least $250 billion in capital expenditure over the next 10 years to maintain current levels of output,” arguing that traditional funding sources are insufficient at today’s cost of capital. He pointed to Wheaton Precious Metals’ $4.3 billion silver stream with BHP, announced February 17, 2026, as a potential template for future mega-deals, and suggested royalty and streaming companies could further lower their cost of capital by issuing long-dated bonds secured against existing streams. On Lundin and BHP’s Vicuña project, following the integrated PEA released February 17, 2026, Rule said if the “most exciting copper discovery on the planet” struggles to meet hurdle rates, it may signal where copper’s true incentive price lies. He also contrasted what he described as “the best permitting environment that we've seen in the last 30 years” at the US federal level with the Department of Justice brief filed February 16, 2026, defending the EPA’s veto of Alaska’s Pebble project.