About base metals
Editorial · sourcedWhat are base metals?
"Base metals" is the historical term for the six common industrial non-ferrous metals that trade as the core contract set on the London Metal Exchange (LME): copper, aluminium, nickel, zinc, lead and tin. The term distinguishes them from "precious metals" (gold, silver, PGMs) — base metals oxidise or corrode in air and water, whereas precious metals are chemically inert and historically used as money. Today the term is purely a market category: all six base metals have continuous regulated futures markets dating back at least to 1877 (LME copper) and represent the highest-volume industrial metal contracts in the world.
How base metals are priced
All six base metals have a daily official settlement published by the LME at the end of the second ring session in London (T+1 publication; see lme.com directly for the official figures), plus parallel front-month futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) for Asian-hours settlement. Copper additionally trades on CME COMEX (ticker HG). The LME settlement is the contractual reference for the global physical trade — physical premia (e.g. Rotterdam in-warehouse, Yangshan import) are quoted as differentials to the LME price by Fastmarkets, Argus and S&P Global Platts.
Where base metals come from
Mine output by metal is published annually by USGS in the Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. The base-metal complex is geographically concentrated but not monopolised: Chile leads copper, Indonesia and the Philippines lead nickel, China leads aluminium (via bauxite refining), Australia and Peru lead zinc and lead, China and Indonesia lead tin. Unlike critical-mineral chains, no single country controls more than ~30% of global mine output for any individual base metal. See the individual metal pages below for country-level breakdowns.
Who produces base metals
The base-metal mining industry is dominated by a small set of diversified majors that operate across multiple metals: BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore, Anglo American, Codelco (Chile, world's #1 copper producer), Freeport-McMoRan, Vale, Norilsk Nickel, and the major Chinese state-owned smelters (Chalco for aluminium, Jiangxi Copper).
What base metals are used for
Base metals are the structural backbone of the industrial economy:
- Copper — electrical wiring, motors, building wire, electronics (electrification of the energy system runs on Cu).
- Aluminium — transport (cars, aircraft), packaging (beverage cans), construction (window frames, façades), power transmission.
- Nickel — stainless steel (≈70% of demand), battery cathodes (NMC/NCA), superalloys.
- Zinc — galvanising of steel (corrosion protection), die-cast alloys, brass.
- Lead — lead-acid batteries (auto + industrial UPS); 85% of demand is recycled secondary supply.
- Tin — solder (electronics PCB assembly), tinplate (food packaging), chemical catalysts.
Key facts about base metals supply
- Copper, nickel and aluminium are on the USGS 2025 Critical Minerals list; tin is on the EU 2023 CRM list.
- Recycling intensity varies enormously: lead ~85% recycled, copper ~35%, tin ~25%, nickel ~25%, zinc ~30%, aluminium ~30% (secondary share of total supply).
- The LME-listed base metals are the historical reference for "metals" as an asset class — index providers (Bloomberg, S&P GSCI, Dow Jones) weight them as the industrial-metals component of broad commodity indices.