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Spotting enormous growth opportunities early on can lead investors to discover the best stocks to buy. And late in 2025, one of these potential long-term winners could be Ecora Resources (LSE:ECOR).
The mining royalties and streaming enterprise has been aggressively repositioning its project portfolio over the last five years. This transition hasn’t been smooth, creating a lot of volatility in both its share price and financials.
But the firm’s now reached a stage where it’s seemingly perfectly positioned to benefit from a surge in copper prices. And with countries scrambling to decarbonise and electrify their infrastructures, analysts at S&P Global Commodity Insights have projected a massive 9.9m- tonne global supply deficit by 2035.
To put that into perspective, at today’s prices, that presents a $106.9bn growth opportunity over the next decade. And that’s assuming copper prices don’t continue to rise from here.
So why’s Ecora primed to profit from this supply imbalance? And should investors rush to buy shares before the expected surge?
Digging into the details
As a quick crash course, Ecora provides upfront funding for mining companies so they can explore potential extraction sites and get shovels into the ground. In exchange, the business then earns a small royalty from any future revenue generated from that mine.
Historically, the group’s largely invested in steelmaking and thermal coal projects. But with management seeing the long-term need for critical metals like copper, cobalt and uranium, they switched tactics and have been repositioning the royalty portfolio to capitalise on these long-term demand trends.
2025 marks the first year that copper, cobalt, and nickel will generate more than 50% of revenue instead of coal. But looking ahead, that number’s on track to reach 85% by 2030 with multiple projects preparing to drastically ramp up their production over the next two years.
In other words, the company might be standing on the launchpad of a massive surge in revenues. And there are already early signs of this happening. In its latest results, copper and cobalt delivered a massive 150% surge in revenues – a trend that management expects to accelerate in 2026.
Risk versus reward
While this early and long-term growth potential’s undeniably exciting, it’s important to recognise there’s considerable risk attached to this enterprise.
Ecora may not be doing any of the mining, but it’s nonetheless still sensitive to commodity prices. This could prove to be quite advantageous if the copper forecasts are correct.
But forecasts are never set in stone. And if demand doesn’t prove to be as strong, or supply starts to catch up, prices may not rise. They might actually fall – something Ecora has experienced first-hand numerous times in the past.
This commodity risk is one of the main reasons why Ecora’s earnings have been so volatile over the last five years. And any unexpected downturn in prices could derail the growth trajectory of this business.
Nevertheless, given the rising demand for these critical metals, it’s an opportunity worth exploring further. And if my hunch is correct (no guarantees), but Ecora could indeed be one of the best stocks out there right now. That’s why I’m seriously considering adding it to my own portfolio.
