Tap into rising copper with Teck

Article Excerpt

TECK RESOURCES LTD. $19 is a still buy. The stock (Toronto symbol TECK.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares o/s: 547.3 million; Market cap: $6.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.teck.com) has more than doubled since falling to $8.15 in March 2020. That gain is partly due to rising copper prices as China has stopped importing copper concentrate from Australia due to a dispute between those countries. While Australia supplies just 5% of China’s copper needs, the ban has forced Chinese smelters (which consume half of global copper production) to buy more of the metal from other sources. We expect copper prices will remain strong over the next few years. That’s good news for Teck, which is currently expanding its Quebrada Blanca copper mine in northern Chile. The project—called QB2—will increase the company’s copper production 60% and extend the production life of the Quebrada Blanca complex by 28 years. QB2 could begin operating in 2022. Teck…