Where Is Copper Found? Top Countries, Ores and Mines

Most mined copper comes from a short list of countries. Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Peru together produced about 11.2 million of the world’s roughly 23 million tonnes of mine copper in 2025, according to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (2025 figures are estimates). Geologically, the metal sits mainly in two kinds of rock: large igneous intrusions called porphyries, and layered sedimentary basins. Below you will find the country ranking, the rock types behind it, the mines that matter, and a calculator that turns an ore grade into tonnes of metal.

Where is copper found? Countries ranked by mine output

The table ranks countries by estimated 2025 mine production, which is the copper contained in the ore a country’s mines actually recovered. Reserves are the part of the resource that the USGS judges can be mined at a profit today, so they move with prices and costs. Shares are worked out against the USGS world total of 23,000 thousand tonnes, which the USGS rounds, so shares are approximate.

Chart

Top copper-mining countries

Estimated 2025 mine production, thousand tonnes of contained copper

Two things stand out. First, Chile alone supplies about one tonne in four, and the top three countries supply nearly half. Second, the biggest reserves do not always sit under the biggest producers: Australia holds 100 million tonnes of reserves but mined only about 3% of the world’s copper in 2025.

If your question is “where is the most copper found”, the honest answer has two parts. Chile mines the most today. Chile also has the largest reserves (USGS, 2026). Both facts point to the Andes.

Which countries are producing more or less copper

The yearly numbers move, and the 2024 to 2025 change shows why. Indonesia fell from 1,010 to 710 thousand tonnes. The main reason is the Grasberg mine: Freeport-McMoRan reported that a mud rush on 8 September 2025 at the Grasberg district halted mining there (the unaffected Deep Mill Level Zone and Big Gossan mines restarted in late October 2025), and the company’s second-quarter 2026 report says the underground block cave was still in a phased ramp-up. Russia, DR Congo and Zambia rose over the same period.

Chart

Who gained and who lost

Mine production, thousand tonnes

Zambia’s growth is visible at company level. First Quantum Minerals said its 2025 copper output was 396 thousand tonnes, and that the Kansanshi S3 expansion contributed about 25 thousand tonnes of copper in 2025.

Where copper is found in nature: the rocks and minerals

Copper does not occur evenly. It collects where hot fluids or old basins concentrated it. The USGS global copper assessment counts two deposit types as about 80% of the world’s copper supply: porphyry deposits (about 60%) and sediment-hosted stratabound deposits (about 20%).

Chart

Copper in the pure mineral

Percent copper by weight

Porphyry deposits: the Andes, the US Southwest and the Pacific rim

A porphyry copper deposit is a large body of rock in which copper minerals are scattered through an igneous intrusion. The grade, meaning the share of copper in the rock, is low but the tonnage is huge. A USGS deposit model gives the typical range as 0.3 to 2.0 percent copper in ore of more than 100 million tonnes, with an average of 0.44% in 2008. Porphyries form above subduction zones, which is why they line the Andes, the western United States, the Indonesian arc and the Tibetan Plateau.

Many porphyries also yield gold and molybdenum. That overlap is why copper and gold districts so often share the same map. Our guide to porphyry copper alteration, grades and discovery goes deeper on that setting.

Sediment-hosted deposits: the Central African Copperbelt and Poland

In sediment-hosted stratabound deposits, copper sits in layers of sedimentary rock. The USGS notes that Africa and the Middle East have the world’s largest accumulation of these deposits, and that Western Europe has the largest single sediment-hosted stratabound deposit, in Poland. The Copperbelt that spans DR Congo and Zambia belongs to this group, and its ore is often much richer than a porphyry’s. Ivanhoe Mines reported an average feed grade of 3.59% copper through the Kamoa-Kakula Phase 1 and 2 concentrators in 2025, roughly eight times the average porphyry grade quoted above.

Other settings: skarns, iron-oxide copper-gold and native copper

Skarns form where hot fluids react with limestone next to an intrusion, and iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposits carry copper with iron and gold. In a few places copper occurs as metal itself. The Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan is the classic example, and the National Park Service timeline of Michigan copper mining traces its long history of native-copper mining.

Which minerals carry the copper

Near the surface, weathering turns primary sulfide into colourful secondary minerals. Green malachite and bright blue azurite mark old copper outcrops. Chalcopyrite, a brassy sulfide, is the main primary ore mineral in porphyries. The table below gives the theoretical copper content of the common ore minerals. Real ore is far poorer, because the minerals are mixed with waste rock.

The values come from Webmineral’s mineral data pages, which list the composition of each mineral.

▶ What a satellite map shows: iron-oxide rust, clay and mica, silica and faults, the same clues used for copper. · 4:18

Copper by region: the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe

Grouping the USGS country figures by region gives a simple picture for 2025 estimates. The Americas lead: Chile (5,300 thousand tonnes), Peru (2,700), the United States (1,000), Mexico (690) and Canada (500) add up to about 10.2 million tonnes. Africa follows with DR Congo (3,200) and Zambia (940), about 4.1 million tonnes between them. In Asia and the Pacific, China (1,800), Australia (730), Indonesia (710) and Kazakhstan (710) add about 4.0 million tonnes. Europe’s main miners are Russia (1,300) and Poland (410), where the sediment-hosted deposits mentioned above are mined.

These regional sums leave out smaller producers, which the USGS groups as “other countries” (3,000 thousand tonnes). Treat them as an order-of-magnitude guide rather than a regional statistic.

Mined copper is not the same as refined copper

Where copper is mined and where it is refined are different maps. The USGS lists China’s refinery production at 12,400 thousand tonnes in 2024 and 14,000 in 2025 (estimate), against mine output of about 1.8 million tonnes. China imports concentrate and scrap to feed its refineries. Japan, the Republic of Korea and Germany also appear in the USGS table with refinery output but no mine output. So a question such as “where does the copper in my wiring come from” can have a different answer from “where is copper found”. Ore starts in the ground in Chile, DR Congo or Peru, but much of it is smelted and refined elsewhere.

The biggest copper mines and where they are

Country totals hide the real picture: a handful of mines make a large share of each country’s copper. These are examples with published, dated figures from company reports, not a complete ranking.

BHP reported Escondida output of 1,261.2 thousand tonnes for its 2026 financial year, a 3% drop on the year before. Codelco’s output of 1.332 million tonnes in 2025 was reported by Reuters from Chilean media figures. A figure for the whole of Codelco is not a single mine, so do not compare it directly with Escondida.

Elsewhere, Antamina in Peru, Collahuasi in Chile, Kansanshi in Zambia, Morenci in Arizona and Highland Valley in British Columbia are other well-known operations that you can look up in their owners’ reports.

Where is copper found in the United States

US mines recovered an estimated 1.0 million tonnes of copper in 2025, down 5% on 2024, and the USGS says Arizona produced about 70% of it. Copper was also mined in Alaska, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The country had 26 copper mines, and 17 of them made more than 99% of production. The country imports a lot of its refined copper: the USGS puts net import reliance at 57% of apparent consumption for 2025.

Chart

US mine production of copper

Recoverable copper, thousand tonnes

US production has drifted down since 2021, from 1,230 thousand tonnes to an estimated 1,000 thousand in 2025. Large undeveloped projects such as Resolution in Arizona, which BHP lists among its US copper options, are one reason the debate over new supply continues.

How much copper is left in the ground

The USGS puts world reserves at about 980 million tonnes. Its last global assessment, from 2015 data, found 2.1 billion tonnes of identified resources, including past production of 600 million tonnes, and an estimated 3.5 billion tonnes of undiscovered copper. About half of that undiscovered copper lies in South America, South Central Asia with Indochina, and North America combined, and South America alone holds roughly 20% of the undiscovered total.

Chart

Copper reserves by country

Million tonnes of copper

At the 2025 mining rate of about 23 million tonnes a year, the 980 million tonnes of reserves would last around 43 years. That is not a forecast, because reserves grow when exploration and prices improve.

Where copper and gold are found together

Copper and gold overlap because the same hot fluids that deposit copper often carry gold. The USGS describes gold-rich porphyries in Indonesia, and the Grasberg district named above is a copper and gold operation: Freeport reports gold sales alongside copper in the same results. A mine that sells both metals can earn money even when one price is weak, which is why explorers look for both signatures.

How explorers find new copper from space

Satellites cannot see copper under the ground, but they can map the rock around it. Hot fluids leave behind rusty iron-oxide stains, clay and mica minerals, and silica, and faults and fractures show up as straight lines. A multispectral sensor such as Sentinel-2 records these as colour differences, and geologists treat them as clues for where to send a field crew.

Farmonaut screens a licence area this way and reports exploration targets from satellite-based mineral detection. These are targets that sit ahead of drilling, not a resource estimate. To send us your boundary for a quote, use the mining enquiry form.

▶ Remote sensing for mining explained in three minutes: what satellite instruments measure. · 2:01

Calculator: how much copper is in an ore body

Once you know where copper is, grade decides whether it is worth mining. Use the calculator on this page to turn ore tonnes and grade into contained copper, recovered copper and a rough value. The inputs are examples: replace each with your own, and use today’s price.

Frequently asked questions

Where is copper found in the world?

Mainly in Chile, DR Congo, Peru and China, which together mined about 13 million of the 23 million tonnes produced in 2025 (USGS estimate). Russia, the United States, Zambia, Australia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Mexico follow.

Where is copper found in nature?

In ore minerals such as chalcopyrite, bornite, chalcocite and malachite, in porphyry intrusions and sedimentary basins, and as native metal in rare places such as Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. It also occurs in trace amounts in soil and water.

Which country has the most copper?

Chile, by both measures the USGS reports: about 5.3 million tonnes of mine output in 2025 and 180 million tonnes of reserves.

Where is copper found in the United States?

Arizona produces about 70% of US copper. The rest comes from Alaska, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

Where is copper found in Africa?

Mostly in the Central African Copperbelt across DR Congo and Zambia, where sediment-hosted deposits carry high grades. DR Congo mined an estimated 3.2 million tonnes and Zambia 0.94 million in 2025.

What kind of rock contains copper?

Granitic intrusions of the porphyry type, sedimentary layers in basins, limestone altered at skarn contacts, and iron-oxide-rich breccias. Weathered outcrops show green malachite and blue azurite.

What is the richest copper ore?

Among the pure minerals, native copper is 100% copper and chalcocite is about 80%. Among mines, the Kamoa-Kakula Phase 1 and 2 plants processed ore averaging 3.59% copper in 2025 (Ivanhoe Mines).

Is copper rare?

Not in the sense of being scarce in rock, but economic deposits are concentrated. The USGS estimates 3.5 billion tonnes of copper are still undiscovered, compared with about 23 million tonnes mined each year.

Where is copper found in Canada?

Canada mined an estimated 500 thousand tonnes in 2025 (USGS). Nearly half of Canadian output in 2024 came from British Columbia, home to the Highland Valley mine, according to Natural Resources Canada.

How do geologists find copper?

They map outcrops and alteration, run geochemical and geophysical surveys, and drill. Satellite images help early on by showing iron-oxide and clay alteration over a large area before any ground crew is sent.