Matthew Murphy

Matt Murphy, CFA, is a Managing Director of equity research at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, where he covers senior gold and base metal miners (base metals are the industrial metals such as copper and zinc, as opposed to precious metals). His relevance to resource investors is concrete: he is BMO's covering analyst on First Quantum Minerals, and his read on the Cobre Panamá dispute — the shuttered mine that produced roughly 1.5% of the world's copper before its concession was ruled unconstitutional in 2023 — has become one of the most-cited sell-side perspectives (the sell side is the bank analysts who publish research and ratings) on whether and how the mine restarts.

Murphy has spent his career analyzing mining equities on the sell side. Before joining BMO in early 2025, he covered metals and mining at Jefferies, where The Globe and Mail ranked him among the most accurate Canadian analysts for the period ending July 2024. His coverage list spans the large-cap end of the sector: Newmont, Kinross Gold, Teck Resources, Royal Gold, Pan American Silver, Lundin Mining, Hudbay Minerals, and First Quantum.

His approach is conventional equity research done carefully: ratings and price targets built from production guidance, mine-level economics, and the political and legal context around each asset. That last element drives his headline work. When Panama's ministerial commission recommended in September 2026 that Cobre Panamá could restart only to fund its eventual closure, Murphy's note to clients pushed back on the market's pessimistic read, arguing the full report left room for a negotiated outcome that would preserve substantial asset value for First Quantum.

Investors can follow Murphy through BMO Equity Research notes, his appearances on BMO's "IN Tune" podcast — including a September 2026 episode on Canadian mining, energy, and data-center investment — and his moderation of sessions at BMO's Global Metals, Mining & Critical Minerals Conference. His current focus tracks the sector's big questions: the resolution of Cobre Panamá, copper supply, and where infrastructure spending could unlock Canadian mining districts.