Copper is one of the most important non-ferrous metals. Through beneficiation, smelting and processing procedures such as extrusion, rolling, drawing, stamping, forging, etc., copper ore can be processed into sheets, foils, tubes, rods, wires and various shapes of copper, which are widely used in electric power, electronics, home appliances, transportation, construction and other fields.
1.Global Copper Ore Reserves Distribution
The distribution of copper mines in the world is highly concentrated. According to the survey data of USGS, the global copper ore reserves in 2021 will be about 88,000,000,000 metal tons, mainly distributed in the Americas. Among them, Chile has the largest copper reserves of about 20,000 million metal tons, accounting for 22.73% of the global copper reserves; Australia and Peru rank second and third respectively, accounting for 10.57% and 8.75% of the global copper reserves.
2. Global Copper Production Distribution
In 2021, the global copper production of mines is about 21 million metal tons, of which Chile is the largest country in terms of production, with a copper production of about 5.6 million metal tons in 2020, accounting for 26.67% of the global copper production, which is comparable to the proportion of its reserves.Since 2012, Peru has been increasing its investment in copper mines, and the high-quality mine LasBambas Copper Mines within its territory was successfully put into production in 2016. In 2021, Peru's copper production has reached 2.2 million metal tons, accounting for 10.48% of global copper production, surpassing China to become the second in the world. China's copper production in 2021 is about 1.8 million metal tons, accounting for 8.57% of the total global copper production.
3. Global Copper Ore Consumption Distribution
Since copper concentrate is mainly used to produce refined copper, the distribution of refined copper production can better reflect the distribution of copper ore consumption.
The consumption of copper concentrate is mainly concentrated in Asia, and its main production areas are not consistent. 2020, Asia produced a total of 14,157,200 tons of refined copper, accounting for 57.76% of the world's total refined copper production; the Americas and Europe, respectively, produced 4,412,200 tons of refined copper and 3,921,400 tons of refined copper, accounting for 18.00% and 16.00% of the world's production; Africa and Oceania, refined copper production is less. Africa and Oceania produced less refined copper.
The industrial chain of copper products mainly consists of upstream links such as mining, midstream links such as smelting and processing of copper ore into materials, downstream links such as terminal consumption, and intermediate distribution links such as trading of raw materials and products. Upstream is mainly for the miners to mine and wash the raw ore from the mines to produce the main raw material, copper concentrate. The midstream mainly includes smelting and processing. In the smelting process, copper smelters carry out crude smelting of copper concentrates and scrap copper and other raw materials to produce crude copper (with a copper content of about 98.5%), and then refine the crude copper to produce refined copper (with a copper content of about 99%) that can be directly used for processing. Among them, the refined copper obtained from the smelting of copper concentrate is primary refined copper; the refined copper obtained from the smelting of recycled scrap copper is recycled refined copper. In the processing segment, copper processing enterprises process refined copper through different processes to produce various shapes of copper products, such as copper rods, copper tubes, copper sheets and strips, copper foils and so on. Downstream end-users purchase and consume different copper products according to their needs. The intermediate chain is mainly provided by traders, and the raw materials and products involved are mainly copper concentrates, refined copper and various types of copper materials. Among them, copper concentrate is the most important trade item in the international and domestic markets.
