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World Copper Production and Consumption, 1960-1997 Economic, technological and societal factors influence the supply and demand of copper. As society's need for copper increases, new mines and plants are introduced and existing ones expanded. In times of market surplus, existing operations can be scaled back or closed down, while planned expansions can be delayed or canceled.
Copper Mine Production World production: Trend growth rates: Since 1900: 3.2%/year 1960s: 3.4%/year Last 20 years: 2.1%/year Last 5 years:
4.3%/year Changes in Copper Mine Production Traditionally an important supplier of copper ores and concentrates, Chile has increased its share of world production from 13% in 1978 to 29% in 1997. Chile produced 3392 thousand tonnes in 1997. Africa, however,
experienced a 52% reduction in its mine production between 1978 and Copper Smelter Production Smelting is the pyrometallurgical process used to produce copper metal. Recently, the trend to recover copper directly from ores through leaching processes has been on the increase (see section on Refined Copper Production). Primary smelters use mine concentrates as their main source of feed (although some use copper scrap as well). Secondary copper smelters use copper scrap (mainly low grade) as their feed
Copper Smelter Production by Region, 1997 (thousand tonnes) World Smelter Production: 11182 kt Half of the world's smelter production comes from four countries: Chile 1390
kt
Refined Copper Production With the gradual emergence of solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) technology, refined copper produced from leaching ores now accounts for 13% of production. Recognizing the economic, as well as environmental importance of recycling, part of refined production is sourced from scrap.
Changes in Refined Copper Production Refinery Production 1997: 13564 thousand tonnes In less than
30 years, South America, and in particular Chile, has emerged as one of
the world's major suppliers of refined copper metal. From modest production
levels of 177 kt in 1960, South American production has increased by 1425%.
Similarly, Asia increased its production by 800% over the same period,
most of which occurred in Japan and China.
Trends in Refining Capacity
During the 1980's and the first half of the 1990's, world refining capacity averaged 12331 kt. Over the following four years total refining capacity increased by 26%, as compared to the previous 15 year average. Electrowinning capacity has increased by 286%, most of which
Copper Fabricators 1997 Production of Copper and Copper Alloy Shapes (copper content, thousand tonnes)
Source: Europe:
International Wrought Copper Council; Japan: World Bureau of Metal Statistics;
United States: Copper Development Association, Inc.
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