President Donald Trump has made the raw materials of modern life a pillar of U.S. foreign policy. He has talked about acquiring Greenland and its vast mineral wealth and prodding Ukraine for minerals in exchange for help fending off Russia’s invasion.

The US President's copper imports investigation has contributed to rapidly escalating global trade tensions. The metal is a vital component in a number of products, and is also important for the green transition.

"American industries depend on copper, and it should be made in America, no exemptions, no exceptions," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.

Shares of copper miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) jumped by over 4% during morning trade on Wednesday after Reuters reported that President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into potential new tariffs on copper imports,

Chile's power grid and major copper mines slowly came back online on Wednesday morning after a major outage hit the world's top producer of the red metal, with power firms working to restore the system to full operation,

Copper futures (HG1:COM) rose nearly 4% on Wednesday, extending gains to a second trading session after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into potential tariffs on copper imports. Prices also got a boost from expectations of supply disruptions after Chile was hit with a widespread power outage,

Chile has been hit by its worst blackout in 15 years after a transmission line failure knocked out power for hours for more than 90 per cent of its population as well as the country’s crucial copper mines.