USGS Copper Mine Production Explained: Countries, Reserves and Prices

Reviewed October 2026 against USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024, 2025 and 2026 editions, the USGS Science Data Catalog, the ICSG Factbook and Natural Resources Canada.

World copper mine production reached approximately 22 million metric tons in 2023, according to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024 — Copper. A later edition revised that figure to 22.6 million tonnes. In the revised data, Chile led at 5.25 million tonnes, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (2.93 million tonnes), Peru (2.76 million tonnes) and China (1.82 million tonnes). The United States produced 1.13 million tons, worth $9.83 billion at the mine (USGS, 2025).

That’s the headline. The rest of this page breaks down where the tonnage came from, what USGS says about reserves and supply risk in Chile, Peru, and Congo, how the 2025 and 2026 editions of the same report revised the picture for 2024 and 2025, and — because each annual USGS figure is an estimate that later editions revise — exactly how to pull next year’s number yourself when it publishes.

USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries: World Mine Production

The USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024 is a one-page-per-commodity annual report the US Geological Survey publishes once a year, in January or February, covering the prior calendar year’s mine production, reserves and trade for each mineral commodity it lists. For copper, the 2024 edition reports world mine production of 22 million metric tons for calendar year 2023. USGS counts copper in metric tons, which is the same unit as tonnes.

Underlying that 22 million figure is a companion dataset: the USGS Science Data Catalog entry for MCS 2024 Copper, a machine-readable copy of the US salient statistics and world production data from the same copper data sheet. The country table is also printed in the PDF itself, and the figures below come from the 2024, 2025 and 2026 editions of that PDF.

Country-by-Country: Chile, Peru, DRC, China, and the US

USGS’s 2023 country breakdown is concentrated: the four largest producers account for roughly 56% of world production (revised 2023 data), and the top ten for about 79%. Here is the country table, with the 2025 estimate added for comparison:

Sources: 2023 values and the world total from USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 (revised data); 2025 estimates from Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. Shares are calculated here against the 2023 world total of 22.6 million tonnes.

For anyone assessing supply concentration risk, sourcing decisions, or exploration targets, the country split is the actual working data. Chile plus DR Congo plus Peru alone account for roughly half of everything mined.

How the figures change between editions

USGS revises its numbers, so always note the edition. For 2023, the 2024 edition estimated Chile at 5.0 million tonnes, the DR Congo at 2.5 million and Peru at 2.6 million. The 2025 edition revised these to 5.25, 2.93 and 2.76 million tonnes, and the world total from 22.0 to 22.6 million tonnes (USGS, 2025). The table above uses the revised 2023 values.

The 2026 edition covers 2024 and gives an estimate for 2025. It puts world mine production at 23 million tonnes in both years. For 2025 it estimates Chile at 5.3 million tonnes, the DR Congo at 3.2 million and Peru at 2.7 million (USGS, 2026). The International Copper Study Group reports a similar picture for 2024: 23 million tonnes in total, Chile at 24% of output, and the DR Congo (14%) ahead of Peru (12%) (ICSG, 2025).

Chart

Largest copper mining countries, 2025 estimate

Mine production, million tonnes of copper content

US Copper Mine Production: Arizona’s 70%, Scrap, and Value

The United States mined 1.1 million tons of recoverable copper in 2023, valued at $9.9 billion at the mine gate, per USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024 (revised to 1.13 million tons and $9.83 billion in the 2025 edition). Arizona alone accounted for 70% of that total. USGS also lists Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah as copper-mining states (Alaska joins the list in the 2026 edition), but it gives no separate figures for them.

Scrap adds a large share to the US copper supply picture. In 2023, US industry recovered 700,000 tons of copper from new manufacturing scrap, and recycled copper — new and old scrap combined — supplied 33% of the US copper supply. That’s a meaningfully different number from mine production and worth keeping separate: when a search result or summary says “US copper supply,” check whether it means mined tonnage, refined output, or total supply including recycling, because USGS reports all three as distinct figures.

Where does the copper go? In the US, building construction took 42% of copper and alloy products, electrical and electronic products 23%, transportation 18%, consumer and general products 10% and industrial machinery 7%, according to the Copper Development Association as quoted by USGS (2026). Worldwide, Natural Resources Canada gives a different split for 2024: building construction 26%, consumer products, cooling and electronics 23%, infrastructure 17%, transportation 13% and industrial equipment 12%, with 9% in other uses. The two lists use different categories, so do not compare them line by line.

Reserves, Chile-Peru-Congo Concentration, and Supply Risk

USGS estimates world copper reserves — the recoverable metal content of known, economically mineable deposits — at approximately 1 billion metric tonnes in the 2024 edition (980 million in the 2025 and 2026 editions). That figure is not broken out by US state in the public summary (USGS lists reserves by country, for example 47 million tonnes for the United States in the 2025 edition, but not by state), so anyone needing a state-by-state reserve estimate has to go to individual company 10-K filings or state geological surveys instead.

What the country-level production data does support is a concentration read: Chile, Peru, and the DR Congo together mined 10.94 million tonnes in 2023 (revised data), roughly 48% of world supply from three countries. That concentration is the actual “risk” content behind searches like “reserves chile peru congo risks” — it isn’t a single USGS risk rating, it’s the arithmetic of how much of the world’s copper comes from a small number of jurisdictions, each with its own permitting timelines, labor conditions, and political cycles. USGS does not publish a reserve-life index (reserves ÷ annual production) for individual countries, so if you want a rough proxy, you can compute it yourself: world reserves (1 billion tonnes) divided by world 2023 production (22 million tonnes) gives roughly 45 years of production at current extraction rates (about 43 years using the 2026 edition: 980 million over 23 million) — a static ratio, not a forecast, since it ignores future discoveries, grade decline, and demand growth.

Reserves are not spread like output. In the 2026 edition, USGS lists reserves of 180 million tonnes for Chile, 100 million for Australia, 85 million for Peru, and 80 million each for the DR Congo and Russia, out of 980 million worldwide. Dividing each reserve figure by 2025 estimated output gives a rough ratio: about 34 years for Chile, 31 for Peru and 25 for the DR Congo. Worldwide it is about 43 years. These are simple ratios, not forecasts. USGS adds a note that Australia’s reserves under the JORC code, or an equivalent, are 27 million tons, so the Australian ratio depends on the basis used.

Resources are larger than reserves. A USGS assessment of 2015 data counted 1.5 billion tons of identified copper not yet mined (USGS, 2026). A separate USGS scientific report estimates undiscovered copper at a mean of at least 3,500 million tonnes, most of it in porphyry deposits (USGS, 2018).

Chart

Reserves compared with output

Each dot is a country

The USGS Update: What Changed

USGS published the next edition, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 — Copper, in January 2025, covering calendar year 2024. That report puts world copper mine production at 23 million tonnes for 2024 (rounded), up about 2% from the revised 2023 figure of 22.6 million tonnes. Note the label: USGS marks the latest year’s production figures with an “e” for estimated, and later editions revise them. So the 23 million tonne figure for 2024 was USGS’s own January 2025 estimate for that year, not a final total.

This is the pattern worth understanding rather than memorizing a single year’s figure: USGS releases a Mineral Commodity Summaries volume once a year, in January or February, each one giving an estimate for the year just ended and a revised figure for the year before that. The 2026 edition was published in February 2026. It covers 2024 and gives an estimate for 2025. Check the USGS site for a 2027 edition. The method for finding it is in the “How to Pull the Next USGS Release” section below.

One edition later, the 2026 edition set 2024 at 23 million tonnes, with Chile at 5.51 million tonnes and the DR Congo at 2.99 million. It estimates 2025 at 23 million tonnes again. Output is rising in the DR Congo, Russia and Zambia. It is falling in Indonesia and Chile, as the chart shows. The US is estimated at 1.0 million tons for 2025, down 5% from 2024 (USGS, 2026).

Chart

Who is growing and who is falling

Mine production, million tonnes of copper content

Copper Price: Where USGS Numbers Stop and Markets Take Over

USGS also tracks price in its monthly Mineral Industry Surveys, separate from the annual summaries. One data point from that series is the average COMEX copper price of $4.38 per pound in October 2024, per the USGS Monthly Mineral Industry Survey — Copper, October 2024. That’s a monthly average, not a spot quote, and it’s already dated by the time you’re reading this.

For a current price, USGS is the wrong source, because its reports give monthly and annual average prices, not live trading. Go directly to the COMEX (part of CME Group) or London Metal Exchange (LME) for daily quotes. For a longer view, the annual summaries list yearly average prices for the last five years (see the chart below).

The 2026 edition gives annual average prices for five years. COMEX averaged 421.6 cents per pound in 2024 and is estimated at 480 for 2025. The London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price averaged 414.7 cents in 2024 and is estimated at 440 for 2025. USGS projected the 2025 COMEX average to be a record and says analysts linked it mainly to uncertainty over US import tariffs (USGS, 2026). Prices change every day, so the calculator below takes your own price.

Chart

Annual average copper price, 2021 to 2025

US dollars per pound, annual average

Satellite-Based Mineral Intelligence for Copper Exploration

Finding new copper deposits, or confirming grade and extent before committing to drilling, is traditionally slow and expensive. Farmonaut’s satellite-based mineral detection platform applies earth observation and remote sensing to narrow down prospective zones before any ground crew deploys — relevant both to mining companies planning new copper projects and to agribusinesses assessing long-term regional supply exposure given the concentration described above.

• ✔ Non-invasive reconnaissance: identifies target zones for copper and other minerals from orbit, ahead of field deployment or drilling investment.
• ✔ Global reach: deployed across Africa, South America, North America, Asia, and Australia — the same regions carrying most of the 22-million-ton world total.
• ✔ Risk-relevant reporting: geospatial prospectivity data supports investment and operations planning ahead of capital commitment.

To explore a mineral site of your own, map it at mining.farmonaut.com. For background on the methodology behind orbit-derived deposit targeting, see this summary: satellite-driven 3D mineral prospectivity mapping.

To request a quote or consultation on satellite-based mineral detection for a specific project, get a quote or contact us directly.

How to Pull the Next USGS Release Yourself

Because these figures update annually and this page can’t chase each new edition line by line, here is the durable method for getting the current number whenever you’re reading this:

1. Go to the USGS National Minerals Information Center’s Mineral Commodity Summaries page (search “USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries copper” — the URL pattern USGS uses is pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs[YEAR]/mcs[YEAR]-copper.pdf, incrementing the year each time a new edition appears).
2. Check the publication date on the cover page. Each edition gives an estimate for the year just ended and a revised figure for the year before. The footer names the month of publication (January 2025, February 2026).
3. Cross-check against the next edition for the revised figure. World output for 2023 moved from 22.0 million tonnes in the 2024 edition to 22.6 million in the 2025 edition, and a year can be revised again later: Chile’s 2024 output went from 5.30 million tonnes (2025 edition) to 5.51 million (2026 edition).
4. For a machine-readable copy, search the USGS Science Data Catalog for the matching “MCS [year] Copper” data release. The country table is also printed in the PDF.
5. For a current price, do not rely on the annual summary — go to the USGS monthly Mineral Industry Surveys for copper, or directly to COMEX/LME for live quotes.

If this topic matters to you, read US Gold Production in Metric Tons, Plus Canada and Silver next.

Frequently Asked Questions

Further reading:

• copper world

Conclusion

USGS’s 22-million-metric-ton figure for 2023 world copper mine production, and the later 23-million-tonne figures for 2024 and 2025, are snapshots from a report series that updates once a year. The durable facts underneath — Chile, DR Congo, and Peru supplying roughly half the world’s mined copper; Arizona supplying 70% of US output; scrap supplying about a third of US copper supply; global reserves equal to a static 43 to 45 years of output — are what should inform planning, not the headline number alone. Use the verification method above to pull the newest edition whenever you need it, and treat the country and reserve breakdowns as the parts most worth re-checking each year.

For sourcing decisions, exploration planning, or supply-risk assessment tied to any of the figures above, Farmonaut’s satellite-based mineral detection platform can help narrow down where to look next. Contact us or get a custom mining quote to discuss a specific project.