Market Survey on Copper - Indian Bureau of Mines

4.4 COUNTRY WISE ANALYSIS
Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Russia,
Kazakhstan, South Korea, USA and Zambia are the important producers of copper in
the world. Their details are presented below.
Australia
Australia is an important country as far as non-ferrous metals are concerned.
Australia with the reserves base of 24 million tonnes in terms of copper content is
placed at 7 th position in the world tally. Australia’s copper resources occur largely at
Olympic Dam in the state of South Australia and at Mount Isa in the state of
Queensland. Other important copper resources are located at the CSA and the North
Parkes deposits in the state of New South Wales. The Ernest Henry, the Mammoth
and the Osborne are the deposits located in Queensland. In the state of Western
Australia, the Golden Groove and the Nifty are important copper deposits. The
exploration activities in respect of copper in Australia have been accelerated since last
5 years. South Australia and Queensland are the two main provinces where the
exploration activities are primarily concentrated. Telfer gold-copper mine of New
Crest Mining Ltd. was further developed and as a result the production has increased
to more than 55,000 tonnes per year. There were more than 12 copper projects in
Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and West Australia where feasibility
studies have shown promising results. A pre-feasibility study of Prominent Hill Mine
of Oxiana Ltd. has shown that an open pit mine could be developed with a
production capacity of 90-100 thousand tpy of copper.
The Copper Co. Ltd.’s Lady Annie Copper deposit is located 100km. north-
northwest of Mount Isa, Queensland. The construction of mine was completed in
2007. Copper Oxide ore is located near the surface. The resources of these mines
were estimated at 11.3 million tonnes with an average grade of 1.0% copper. The
beginning of production from the Lady Annie mines and the Leichardt mines is
compensating the lower production from North Parkes and Olympic Dam mines.
Australia produced 854 thousand tonnes of copper ores and concentrates in
2009. The trend in production of ores and concentrates in Australia was fluctuating.
The Mine production of copper which was 830 thousand tonnes in 2003 increased to
886 thousand tonnes in 2008 showing an increase of 6.75%. It again decreased to 854
thousand tonnes in 2009. The smelter production of copper which was 435 thousand
tonnes which came to the level of 449 thousand tonnes in 2008 with lows in 2006 and
2007 and further decreased to 422 thousand tonnes in 2009.
As regards the foreign trade of copper metal, the exports of refined copper were
around 300 thousand tonnes with little ups and downs for the last seven years. The
imports of refined copper were very meager at 1.3 thousand tonnes in 2006 which
were a little higher i.e. at 2 thousand tonnes in 2005. The imports of copper have
suddenly increased to 236 thousand tonnes in 2009.
It is evident from the above discussion that the Australia is not only self
sufficient in copper metal but a net exporter of copper metal and is placed at 7 th
position in the list of copper exporting countries.
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