The decision, when it came, was quieter than one might expect for eighty million florins. Deputy Treasurer Annabel Whitford signed the authorisation in her third-floor office at the Municipal Treasury on Tuesday afternoon. There was no ceremony. The document was four pages long. It will save the city more money than most buildings cost.

The strategy follows the recommendation delivered by Prudence Holt of Greaves & Holt Financial Advisory in her fourteen-page report of 14 April. Holt recommended that the Treasury secure forward contracts for approximately sixty per cent of Phase 1 copper requirements — roughly 7,200 of the estimated 12,000 tonnes needed — at current market prices. The remaining forty per cent would be purchased on the open market during construction, providing exposure to further price declines while limiting upside risk.

When Holt made her recommendation, copper stood at 652 florins per tonne, the thirty-fourth consecutive decline from its crisis peak of 891 in late February. Her estimated savings, against the Copper Review Commission’s baseline of 740 florins, were approximately sixty-three million florins.

Copper has continued to fall. On Tuesday, it closed at 634 — the thirty-seventh consecutive decline and the lowest price since the previous September. The estimated savings on the hedged portion now exceed eighty million florins. The Eastern Spice Index, which tracks the broader commodity market for goods transiting the Kaelmar Strait, stood at 208.

“The market has been generous,” Whitford said, in the understated manner that characterises most Treasury communications. “We have acted to secure that generosity for the benefit of the project.”

The contracts will be executed through three domestic brokers over the coming fortnight, with delivery schedules aligned to the Phase 1 construction timeline. The first copper deliveries are expected in late autumn, ahead of the Phase 1 groundbreaking now targeted for late September.

The Continental Rating Agency has been informed. The Agency’s “Satisfactory, Conditional” rating, delivered on 1 April, included copper hedging as one of three conditions — alongside a completed geological survey by 31 December 2026 and Phase 2 contingent on copper remaining below 800 for six months. The hedging decision satisfies the first condition in full.

Holt, reached at her offices on Tuesday evening, was characteristically measured: “The recommendation was sound at 652. It is sounder at 634. The Treasury has made a prudent decision.”

The formal tramway bond offering — 350 million florins, twenty-year maturity, at an indicative coupon of 3.85 per cent — is now confirmed for May. The offering circular is expected within a fortnight. Three of six invited financial institutions have already submitted expressions of interest; the Treasury expects the remaining three to respond once the circular is published.

Councilwoman Ida Pryce, who co-chaired the Copper Review Commission that recommended the phased approach, offered a single sentence: “The commission’s work is bearing fruit.”

Councilman Aldric Voss, who co-chaired alongside Pryce, was more expansive: “Eighty million florins is not a number to be dismissed. It is the difference between a project that is fiscally responsible and one that is merely ambitious. We are now, I believe, the former.”

The copper price decline that has made this possible is a consequence of the Kaelmar Transit Corridor Framework, signed on 24 March, which reopened the eastern trade route and normalised the supply chain that had driven prices to crisis levels. Eight commercial transits have now passed through the corridor without incident. Insurance premiums have fallen to 110 per cent of pre-crisis rates. The crisis that nearly derailed the tramway has, in the end, made it cheaper.

Whether this irony constitutes good fortune or good diplomacy is a question the Treasury has the luxury of not answering. The contracts are being drawn. The copper is being secured. The bonds will follow.