Top Copper-Producing Countries 2024

In this day and age, #copper has gained prominence as one of the top #CriticalMinerals, with demand propelled by the boom in the construction of Artificial Intelligence (#AI) data centers and the vigorous adoption of Electric Vehicles (#EV).

The most impressive increase in copper production occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where production shot up from 1 million tonnes in 2015 to 3.3 million tonnes in 2024, pushing the DRC to the world’s second-largest producer, behind Chile.

China is responsible for this remarkable growth because it owns the majority of the copper mines in operation in the DRC. What it does not own outright, China at least has stake in. Not surprisingly, China is also the largest buyer of Congolese copper.

Domestically, China does possess some copper reserves, but its demand far outstrips its production capacity, and it has no choice but to import. Deploying great efforts, China managed to ramp up its production from 0.5 million tonnes in 2000 to 1.8 million tonnes in 2024.

Under the Belt and Road Initiative (#BRI), the cumulative Foreign Direct Investments (#FDI) from China into the DR Congo’s mining sector has reached USD 13 billion, representing the largest mining investment in Africa and the second-largest worldwide, behind Indonesia.

In terms of copper ore reserves, Chile stands at the top with 19%, followed by Peru and Australia with 10% each. Then, DR Congo and Russia tie at 8% each. Going down the league, the USA and Mexico level up at 5% each, while China holds 4%. As for the USA, its production has remained pretty much flat during the past two decades.