Mining Fundamentals vs Metal Prices

Revenue

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Latest quarterly sales level in the complete financial series.

Operating Income

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Profitability in dollars before financing and tax effects.

Operating Cash Flow

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Cash generation tends to follow commodity price moves with a lag.

Operating Margin

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Margin sensitivity is more tightly linked to copper than to gold.

Relationship takeaways

Copper vs margin: the price-to-margin relationship is strongest at , indicating margin expansion tends to accompany stronger copper quarters.
Gold vs margin: gold still matters, but the relationship is softer at , which keeps copper as the stronger operating driver in this sample.
Lead-lag pattern: revenue, operating income, and operating cash flow all show their best correlation when shifted , pointing to a practical reporting and operating lag from metal moves into fundamentals.

Copper: —

Gold: —

Coverage: —

Chart selection rationale

The required chart set uses common visual logic rather than mixing unrelated forms. Time-based comparisons stay on line or combo charts, while price-to-margin relationships stay on matched scatter plots for direct comparison.

Dual-axis line chart: best for a shared quarter axis where financial series can visibly lag or diverge from commodity prices.
Matched scatter plots: same dependent variable and same chart type keep the copper and gold margin relationships comparable on equal footing.
Bar/line combo: bars convey cash-flow magnitude; overlaid lines preserve the metal trend context that cash generation is reacting to.
Lead-lag correlation bars: a common correlation scale makes the one-quarter delay visible across revenue, income, and cash flow in one view.

Commodity prices vs revenue and operating income

Common time-axis comparison: copper and gold stay on the left log-price axis because their magnitudes differ materially, while revenue and operating income use the right axis in billions of dollars.

Copper price vs operating margin

Matched scatter format isolates the continuous copper-to-margin relationship. Bubble size represents revenue so larger quarters stand out without changing the common x/y comparison.

Gold price vs operating margin

This uses the same scatter design and margin axis as the copper chart, making the relative strength of the two metal relationships directly comparable.

Operating cash flow alongside commodity trends

Bars show cash generation magnitude while the overlaid gold and copper lines show the underlying price backdrop. Visual gaps help pinpoint where cash flow trails or outruns metal moves.

Lead-lag correlation check against copper price

Every metric is compared on the same correlation scale for the same quarter, a one-quarter forward shift, and a two-quarter forward shift. The peak bars indicate where the strongest tracking actually occurs.

Notable divergence quarters

Quarter	Copper QoQ	Revenue QoQ	Op. income QoQ	OCF QoQ	Interpretation