Copper / tables and graphs

Main producers of copper ore

Here are tables and graphs with information about Copper shown.

overview

In 2018, global copper production was 20.4 million t (2017: 20.0 million t). By far the most important production nation was Chile (5.8 million t), followed by Peru (2.4 million t), the People's Republic of China (1.6 million t), the United States (1.2 million t). t) and the DR Congo (1.2 million t). These five states together had a share of 60.3% in world production. In Europe, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Portugal and Sweden should be mentioned.

The smelting and refining of copper is only partially carried out in the respective producing countries. China in particular now smelts and refines a significant proportion of global copper production. The following table gives an overview of the four countries with the largest amounts of refined copper.

Figures in millions of tons

rank	country	Funding (2017)	Smelting (2016)	Refining (2016)
1.	People's Republic of China	1.7	5.5	8.0
2.	Chile	5.5	1.5	2.7
3.	Japan	<0.01	1.4	1.5
4th	United States	1.3	0.5	1.2

Eligible reserves were estimated by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in January 2020 at 870 million t worldwide. Chile accounted for 200 million t, Australia 87 million t, Peru also 87 million t, Russia 61 million t and Mexico 53 million t. These five states together had a share of 56.1 percent of the world's reserves. The static range of the reserves is around 43 years.

The copper mines on the Keweenaw Peninsula on Lake Superior / USA were historically significant (the world's largest deposit of native copper; extraction already in pre-Columbian times). In Germany, copper shale was mined in the Mansfeld region until 1990 .

Reserves

The United States Geological Survey distinguishes between the following two categories:

• The reserve base is that portion of an identified resource that meets the specific minimum physical and chemical criteria for current mining and production practices, including grade , quality , thickness and depth . The publication of data on the stock base was stopped by the USGS in 2009.
• The reserves are that part of the supply base that could be economically extracted or produced at a given time. The term does not have to mean that extraction systems are installed and working. Reserves only contain exploitable substances.

The reserves of the countries with the greatest production are listed here.

Figures in thousands of tons (2018)

rank	country	advancement	Reserves	Stock base (2009)
1.	Chile	5,830	200,000	360,000
2.	Peru	2,440	87,000	120,000
3.	Australia	920	87,000	88,000
4th	Russia	751	61,000	30,000
5.	Mexico	751	53,000	50,000
6th	United States	1,220	51,000	70,000
7th	Indonesia	651	28,000	38,000
8th.	People's Republic of China	1,590	26,000	63,000
9.	DR Congo	1,230	19,000	k. A.
10.	Zambia	854	19,000	35,000
	Other countries	3,540	220,000	110,000
	world	20,400	870,000	1,000,000

advancement

By country

The worldwide mining of copper ore since 1900

The following table contains all countries whose annual production in 2018 was over 10,000 tons. The copper content of ores and concentrates is given. Copper has not been mined in Germany since the early 1990s. All figures relate to the states within their current borders.

Figures in thousands of tons

Rank (2018)	country	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2015	2016	2017	2018
1.	Chile	686	1,068	1,588	4,602	5,419	5,772	5,553	5,504	5,832
2.	Peru	220	367	323	554	1,247	1,701	2,354	2,446	2,437
3.	People's Republic of China	120	165	285	889	1,156	1,712	1,900	1,706	1,591
4th	United States	1,560	1,181	1,588	1,444	1.110	1,416	1,462	1,290	1,250
5.	DR Congo	386	462	352	33	378	1,039	1,024	1,095	1,225
6th	Australia	158	244	330	832	871	996	948	849	913
7th	Zambia	684	610	546	249	767	711	725	797	851
8th.	Russia	387	400	643	530	703	711	702	762	785
9.	Mexico	61	175	299	365	270	594	766	742	697
10.	Indonesia	0	59	162	1.012	863	579	728	622	651
11.	Kazakhstan	138	143	230	430	381	474	475	558	636
12.	Canada	610	716	794	634	522	715	693	597	539
13.	Mongolia	0	44	124	126	128	318	516	475	459
14th	Poland	83	343	370	454	426	426	424	419	401
15th	Brazil	4th	0	34	32	214	359	338	385	381
16.	Iran	0	1	67	147	257	246	289	296	317
17th	Spain	10	49	13	25th	54	113	168	198	185
18th	Myanmar	0	0	0	0	10	71	95	116	154
19th	Laos	0	0	0	0	132	168	178	153	147
20th	Bulgaria	42	62	33	93	113	112	110	109	109
21st	Sweden	26th	43	74	78	77	75	79	104	106
22nd	Uzbekistan	42	43	69	70	80	100	100	100	100
23.	Papua New Guinea	0	147	170	203	160	45	80	105	96
24.	Armenia	1	1	1	12	31	84	103	114	84
25th	Turkey	31	21st	40	76	80	108	100	83	80
26th	Philippines	160	305	181	32	58	84	84	68	70
27.	Saudi Arabia	0	0	0	0	2	12	28	36	68
28.	Portugal	4th	4th	160	76	74	83	74	64	49
29	South Africa	144	201	188	148	103	77	65	66	47
30th	Finland	31	53	18th	12	15th	41	47	53	47
31.	Serbia	85	107	129	46	23	30th	41	45	44
32.	India	10	27	52	38	32	32	32	34	37
33.	Mauritania	0	0	0	0	37	45	33	29	28
34.	Morocco	0	0	0	0	15th	20th	24	25th	24
35.	Vietnam	0	0	0	0	12	23	23	21st	23
36.	Argentina	1	0	0	145	140	62	82	33	17th
37.	Eritrea	0	0	0	0	0	62	25th	8th	17th
38.	Pakistan	0	0	0	0	20th	16	14th	15th	17th
39.	Namibia	23	39	28	5	0	14th	17th	16	15th
40.	Georgia	3	3	4th	9	11	13	14th	15th	13
41.	Colombia	0	0	0	2	1	5	8th	9	10

By company

The company, the country in which it is headquartered, the production volume and the proportion of global production are listed.

Figures in thousands of tons (2017)

rank	Companies	country	amount	Percentage ownership %
1.	Codelco	Chile	1840	9.1
2.	Freeport-McMoRan	United States	1436	7.1
3.	Glencore	Switzerland	1247	6.2
4th	Grupo México	Mexico	883	4.4
5.	BHP Billiton	Australia United Kingdom	796	3.9
6th	KGHM Polska Miedź	Poland	553	2.7
7th	First Quantum Minerals	Canada	513	2.5
8th.	Rio Tinto Group	Australia United Kingdom	499	2.5
9.	Antofagasta plc	United Kingdom	486	2.4
10.	Minerals and Metals Group	Australia	445	2.2

World funding

The following table shows world production in thousands of tons.

Figures in thousands of tons

year Prod. 1900 495 1901 526 1902 555 1903 596 1904 660 1905 713 1906 724 1907 721 1908 744 1909 828 1910 858 1911 890 1912 1,000 1913 996 1914 938

year Prod. 1915 1,060 1916 1,420 1917 1,430 1918 1,430 1919 994 1920 959 1921 558 1922 884 1923 1,270 1924 1,360 1925 1,530 1926 1,510 1927 1,520 1928 1,730 1929 1,950

year Prod. 1930 1,610 1931 1,400 1932 909 1933 1,050 1934 1,280 1935 1,500 1936 1,720 1937 2,290 1938 1,990 1939 2.130 1940 2,400 1941 2,480 1942 2,590 1943 2,620 1944 2,460

year Prod. 1945 2.110 1946 1,780 1947 2.130 1948 2.210 1949 2.140 1950 2,380 1951 2,490 1952 2,570 1953 2,600 1954 2,640 1955 2,900 1956 3,200 1957 3,300 1958 3,190 1959 3,430

year Prod. 1960 3,940 1961 4,090 1962 4,220 1963 4,290 1964 4,450 1965 4,660 1966 4,580 1967 4,630 1968 5.010 1969 5,520 1970 5,900 1971 5,940 1972 6,540 1973 6,920 1974 7,100

year Prod. 1975 6,740 1976 7,260 1977 7,420 1978 7,280 1979 7,350 1980 7,200 1981 7,690 1982 7,580 1983 7,610 1984 7,810 1985 7,990 1986 7,940 1987 8,240 1988 8,720 1989 9,040

year Prod. 1990 9,200 1991 9,330 1992 9,470 1993 9,490 1994 9,500 1995 10,000 1996 11,000 1997 11,500 1998 12,100 1999 12,800 2000 13,200 2001 13,700 2002 13,600 2003 13,800 2004 14,700

year Prod. 2005 15,000 2006 15,100 2007 15,500 2008 15,600 2009 16,000 2010 16,100 2011 16,300 2012 16,900 2013 18,300 2014 18,500 2015 19,100 2016 20,100 2017 20,000 2018 20,400 2019 e 20,000

Production and export

Smelting by country

All figures relate to the states within their current borders.

Figures in thousands of tons

Rank (2018)	country	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2016	2017	2018
1.	People's Republic of China	120	175	358	1.014	2,826	6.115	5,966	6,357
2.	Japan	603	929	1,041	1,331	1,356	1,290	1,192	1,263
3.	Chile	647	953	1,329	1,460	1,560	1,365	1,265	1,246
4th	Zambia	683	601	355	180	535	698	788	829
5.	Russia	368	516	954	550	647	665	730	754
6th	United States	1,489	1.008	1,158	862	601	563	470	536
7th	South Korea	5	64	161	371	476	510	510	530
8th.	India	9	28	41	256	654	773	823	492
9.	Poland	69	367	430	463	470	447	458	462
10.	Australia	112	175	192	391	410	445	360	378
11.	Peru	177	349	261	340	313	309	317	328
12.	Bulgaria	40	59	30th	163	247	245	323	317
13.	Germany	134	170	198	211	379	343	333	311
14th	Iran	0	0	79	156	188	153	114	304
15th	Kazakhstan	165	230	426	414	354	294	296	295
16.	Canada	465	493	476	544	318	304	289	290
17th	Mexico	60	86	210	308	169	268	270	286
18th	Spain	55	103	121	290	259	292	272	285
19th	Indonesia	0	0	0	174	263	256	246	259
20th	Philippines	0	0	153	150	216	215	240	171
21st	Sweden	37	46	76	105	142	132	150	150

Refinery production

By country

All figures relate to the states within their current borders.

Figures in thousands of tons

Rank (2018)	country	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2016	2017	2018
1.	People's Republic of China	120	295	558	1,371	4,540	8,436	8,970	9,029
2.	Chile	452	811	1,192	2,668	3,244	2,613	2,430	2,461
3.	Japan	713	1.014	1.008	1,437	1,549	1,553	1,488	1,595
4th	United States	1444	1,730	2.017	1,802	1,095	1,220	1,080	1,070
5.	Russia	346	502	722	842	900	860	949	1,039
6th	DR Congo	0	0	0	29	259	819	825	1,000
7th	Germany	440	425	532	709	704	671	694	672
8th.	South Korea	7th	88	192	471	565	645	663	665
9.	Poland	93	357	346	486	547	536	522	502
10.	Zambia	534	608	426	226	767	426	466	458
11.	India	10	23	46	260	512	788	831	450
12.	Kazakhstan	199	288	414	395	323	408	426	438
13.	Mexico	53	97	157	343	247	462	446	437
14th	Spain	111	154	171	316	348	429	415	424
15th	Australia	127	182	274	509	424	475	386	408
16.	Belgium	326	526	332	423	381	367	399	390
17th	Peru	33	224	182	452	394	331	335	337
18th	Canada	478	505	516	551	320	314	330	291
19th	Indonesia	0	0	0	158	279	253	271	275
20th	Iran	0	1	48	181	220	193	161	239
21st	Sweden	35	56	97	133	190	207	219	224

By company

Listed are the company, headquarters, refinery production and share of global production.

Figures in thousands of tons (2009)

rank	Companies	country	amount	Percentage ownership %
1.	Codelco	Chile	1881	10.4
2.	Aurubis AG	Germany	1092	6.0
3.	Freeport-McMoRan	United States	1028	5.7
4th	Jiangxi Copper	People's Republic of China	804	4.4
5.	Xstrata	Switzerland	761	4.2
6th	Nippon Mining & Metals Company	Japan	666	3.7
7th	BHP Billiton	Australia United Kingdom	587	3.2
8th.	Sumitomo Metal Mining	Japan	529	2.9
9.	LS-Nikko Copper	South Korea	519	2.9
10.	Mitsubishi Materials	Japan	506	2.8
11.	KGHM Polska Miedź	Poland	503	2.8

Copper export by country

The following table shows countries according to their copper exports . Data is for 2012 and is in millions of dollars as reported by the Observatory of Economic Complexity. The top ten countries are listed.

#	country	Value in millions of US dollars
1	Chile	21,962
2	Japan	4,542
3	Kazakhstan	3,637
4th	Australia	2,904
5	Poland	2,672
6th	Russia	2,528
7th	Zambia	2,349
8th	India	2,248
9	Germany	2,106
10	Peru	1,989

Copper price

On February 15, 2011, the price of copper in New York hit an all-time high of 464.50 US cents per pound (454 grams).

Below are the annual high, low and closing prices for the copper futures in cents per pound on the New York Commodities Exchange (COMEX).

year	Peak	Lowest point	Final stand
1970	78.00	45.05	49.35
1971	58.70	43.90	48.05
1972	53.45	46.40	50.25
1973	100.35	49.85	84.80
1974	137.70	53.50	53.60
1975	63.70	51.30	55.30
1976	80.50	53.80	63.20
1977	72.50	53.00	60.30
1978	71.75	55.50	71.05
1979	119.00	69.25	105.20
1980	148.40	80.15	86.55
1981	91.70	72.50	75.70
1982	76.10	54.60	69.65
1983	81.90	60.80	67.00
1984	71.80	55.30	57.20
1985	67.25	55.70	64.15
1986	69.15	57.50	61.15
1987	127.80	60.05	127.40
1988	164.75	84.30	139.75
1989	154.75	98.50	106.40
1990	135.00	95.00	116.85
1991	119.70	96.05	97.55
1992	117.10	93.70	103.60
1993	108.00	72.00	83.30
1994	139.00	78.50	138.60
1995	146.00	118.80	120.55
1996	126.60	83.00	100.25
1997	123.10	77.40	78.10
1998	87.40	65.70	67.20
1999	86.40	61.10	86.30
2000	94.40	74.25	84.30
2001	86.40	60.50	65.90
2002	79.45	65.65	70.25
2003	105.10	70.05	104.55
2004	151.70	105.90	148.70
2005	207.20	133.00	204.20
2006	402.75	201.20	284.95
2007	380.05	238.25	303.45
2008	409.75	125.50	140.00
2009	337.48	137.20	333.85
2010	444.73	271.63	443.28
2011	464.50	300.00	343.30
2012	398.80	323.80	364.90
2013	379.20	298.60	339.40
2014	342.40	275.50	282.70
2015	295.60	200.20	213.60
2016	275.20	193.70	250.70
2017	332.30	247.40	330.05

Web links

• US Geological Survey
• British Geological Survey
• Copper price
• Copper Development Association

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} United States Geological Survey: Copper Statistics and Information
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} British Geological Survey: World mineral statistics archive
3. ↑ ^{a b} KGHM Polska Miedź: Top 10 - Mining Copper Producers , Integrated Report for 2017, p. 52
4. ↑ United States Geological Survey: World Production since 1900
5. ^ Observatory of Economic complexity - Countries that export Refined Copper (2012) , atlas.media.mit.edu
6. ^ Commodity Research Bureau: The CRB Encyclopedia of Commodity and Financial Prices , John Wiley & Sons, New York 2009, ISBN 0470344067