Copper: Extraction
How rock under 1% copper becomes 99.99% cathode
What this tab covers How it is mined, drilled or grown, and processed into a tradeable form: the main methods compared, their unit economics, by-products, and the companies that do this work globally and in India.Most copper comes from large, low-grade porphyry deposits, above all in the Andes, and from sediment-hosted ores such as the Central African Copperbelt. Ore is blasted in open pits or mined underground, crushed and floated into a concentrate of 25-35% copper. Smelters raise this to 97-99%, and electrolytic refineries to 99.99% cathode. Oxide ores follow a different route: heap leaching, solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW), which skips the smelter entirely (Tilton & Guzmán). Copper ores also carry molybdenum, gold, silver, selenium and, in Congo, cobalt. Copper mining therefore underwrites several smaller metal markets.
Copper reaches the market by three routes. About four-fifths of mine output comes from sulphide ore that is mined in large open pits or underground block caves, floated into concentrate, then smelted and refined. Oxide and some low-grade sulphide ore is leached in heaps or dumps and turned straight into cathode by SX-EW, skipping the smelter. The third route is scrap: new scrap from fabricators and old scrap from demolished buildings, cables and vehicles is remelted or refined. Concentrate is the main traded raw material, priced off the LME less treatment and refining charges. Cathode trades on exchanges and in annual supply contracts.
Methods compared
| Method | Share of supply | Typical scale | Recovery / efficiency | By-products | Unit cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sulphide mining (open pit or underground) + flotation + smelting and electrorefining | about 80% of mine output (complement of the 19% SX-EW share, 2019) | Escondida 1,305 kt Cu in FY2025 (100%); BHP group 2,017 kt FY2025; concentrate 25-35% Cu | n/a | Gold, silver, molybdenum and sulphuric acid. Freeport sold 1.07 Moz of gold and 83 Mlb of molybdenum alongside its copper in 2025. | Freeport unit net cash cost $1.65/lb (2025, after by-product credits); Codelco C1 cash cost 208.6 US cents/lb (2025) |
| Heap and dump leaching + solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) | about 19% of mine output (3.9 of 20.5 Mt, 2019) | SX-EW cathode plants at mines in Chile, Peru, the US Southwest and the DRC; the US had 14 electrowon refineries in 2025 | n/a | Few; cobalt in the DRC where ores carry it | n/a |
| Secondary copper from scrap | 32-33% of global copper demand met by recycled copper (2023) | In the US in 2025, old scrap gave about 160 kt and new scrap about 760 kt of copper; brass and wire-rod mills handled about 80% of scrap recovery | n/a | Zinc and tin from brass and bronze scrap; precious metals from electronic scrap | n/a |
How each method works
Sulphide mining (open pit or underground) + flotation + smelting and electrorefiningOre grading well under 1% copper is blasted and hauled, crushed and ground, then floated into concentrate. Concentrate is shipped to custom smelters, often in China, Japan, Korea or India, which produce anodes that are electrorefined into cathode. Mine and smelter are usually owned by different firms, linked by treatment and refining charges.
Scales to very large mines and earns by-product credits, but ore grades are falling and smelting is energy and emissions intensive.
Tilton and Guzman 2016; BHP Operational Review FY2025; Freeport Q4 2025 results (SEC 8-K); Codelco at a glance, Dec 2025; ICSG Factbook 2020 Heap and dump leaching + solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW)Oxide ore, or low-grade sulphide in dumps, is stacked and irrigated with weak sulphuric acid. The copper-bearing solution is collected, concentrated by an organic extractant and plated out as cathode in electrowinning cells at the mine. It often avoids much of the mining and all of the smelting cost.
Low capital and operating cost and no smelter needed, but suited mainly to oxide ores, which are being depleted in Chile.
Tilton and Guzman 2016, Box 6.2; ICSG Factbook 2020; USGS MCS 2026 Secondary copper from scrapClean new scrap from fabricators is remelted directly in brass and rod mills. Old scrap from cables, pipes and electronics is sorted, chopped and either remelted or fire-refined and electrorefined. Scrap prices are tied to the refined copper price.
Lower energy and emissions than mining, but supply depends on how much copper is retired from use, which lags demand by decades.
ICSG 2023 via BRGM 2024; USGS MCS 2026 Unit economics are indicative ranges from the sources named; costs vary widely by deposit, region and year.Share produced as a by-product
About 15% of primary supply comes as a by-product (Nassar, Graedel & Harper 2015, approximate).Who does it: global
| Company | Country | Activity | Volume | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BHP | Australia | mining (Escondida, Pampa Norte, Copper South Australia, Antamina share) | 2.02 Mt Cu (group production) | FY2025 (to June 2025) | BHP Operational Review for the year ended 30 June 2025 |
| Freeport-McMoRan | US | mining (Grasberg, Americas) | 1.53 Mt Cu (3,383 Mlb consolidated production) | 2025 | Freeport-McMoRan Q4 and full-year 2025 results, SEC Form 8-K |
| Codelco | Chile | mining, smelting and refining (state-owned) | 1.44 Mt Cu (own mines plus shares in El Abra, Anglo American Sur and Quebrada Blanca) | 2025 | Codelco at a glance, 31 December 2025 |
| Zijin Mining | China | mining (DRC, Serbia, China, others) | 1.09 Mt Cu (mined) | 2025 | Mysteel report on Zijin 2025 results, March 2026 |
| Glencore | Switzerland | mining, smelting and trading | 0.85 Mt Cu (own-sourced) | 2025 | Glencore Full Year 2025 Production Report |
| CMOC | China | mining (Tenke Fungurume and Kisanfu, DRC) | 0.74 Mt Cu | 2025 | Mining Visuals, top copper producers Q4 2025 (May 2026) |
| MMG | China (Hong Kong listed) | mining (Las Bambas, Kinsevere, Khoemacau) | 0.51 Mt Cu | 2025 | Mining Visuals, top copper producers Q4 2025 (May 2026) |
Who does it: India
| Company | Country | Activity | Volume | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hindalco (Birla Copper, Dahej) | India | smelting and refining of imported concentrate | 420 kt copper cathode | FY2026 | Hindalco Integrated Annual Report 2025-26, Statutory Reports |
| Vedanta (Sterlite Copper, Silvassa refinery) | India | refining (Tuticorin smelter shut since 2018) | 149 kt copper cathode | FY2025 | Vedanta Q4 FY25 press release, 30 April 2025 |
| Kutch Copper (Adani Enterprises), Mundra | India | smelting and refining (0.5 Mtpa phase 1, ramping up) | 50 kt refined copper (approximate, industry estimate) | FY2026 | BigMint, India primary copper production FY26, April 2026 |
| Hindustan Copper | India | mining (Malanjkhand, Khetri, Indian Copper Complex) | 3.67 Mt ore (27.4 kt metal in concentrate) | FY2026 | Hindustan Copper press release, April 2026 (NSE filing) |
India mined only about 23 kt of copper in 2025 but refined about 620 kt (USGS 2026), so it depends on imported concentrate. Refined demand reached 953 kt in FY2026, up about 12% (Hindalco IR 2025-26), and refined imports were about 510 kt (BigMint, FY2026; Hindalco puts imports lower, at about 30% of demand). Hindustan Copper aims for 12.2 Mtpa of ore mining capacity by 2030, from 3.67 Mt mined in FY2026 (HCL, April 2026).