Market Survey on Copper - Indian Bureau of Mines

The exports of refined copper were 3.19 million tonnes in 2009 as against 3.00
million tonnes in 2008 registering a slight decrease. The main destinations were
Japan, China and India.
The import of copper ores and concentrates in India from Chile in 2008-09 was
at 632 thousand tonnes contributing 28% in the total imports. It was the major
supplier to India since last few years.
China
China was the main destination for a major share of copper metal produced in
the world. This boom in demand of copper metal in China was attributed to rapidly
increasing demand in consumer goods like air conditioners, refrigerators, automobiles
along with building construction and other infrastructure facilities. The copper
scenario in China has interestingly changed in a positive direction within the past few
years. The mine production of copper, the smelter production of copper and exports
of refined copper have increased sharply while the imports of refined copper have
dropped down. The reason for this sudden spurt in activities in the field of copper in
China is attributed to the overall economic and industrial growth in China particularly
in the consumer goods sector.
China has large reserves of copper to a tune of 30 million tonnes of copper
content but the overall grade is very low. There are many copper deposits in China
but most of them are characterised by low grade. A few of them cannot be
economically mined presently. The copper deposits in China are located in Hubei
and Hunan Province and in the parts of adjoining provinces. The Dexing Copper
deposit located in north eastern part of Jiangxi Province is the biggest one.
The production of copper ores and concentrates in China is very low as
compared to the production of refined copper in the country. The country is mostly
dependant on imports of copper ores and concentrates. The production of copper ores
and concentrates was around one million tonnes since last three years.
There are four main copper processing units at Guixi in Jiangxi Province, with a
capacity of 900 thousand tonnes, Yanggu in Shangdong and Jinchuan in Gansu
Province each with a capacity of 400 thousand tonnes and Kuming in Unnan Province
with a capacity of 250 thousand tonnes. Besides, there are 15 other copper processing
units also. The mine production of copper which was 614 thousand tonnes in 2003
has increased to 1022 thousand tonnes in 2008 showing an increase of 66%. It came
down by 6% to 961 thousand tonnes in 2009. The smelter production of copper in
China which was 1379 thousand tonnes, in 2003 has increased to 2635 thousand
tonnes in 2009, registering an increase of 91%. This whopping increase of copper
production has taken China to the top position in the world tally of copper producing
countries since 2005.
The refined copper production from China was 1836 thousand tonnes in 2003,
and increased to 4109 thousand tonnes in 2009. There were negligible exports of
copper ores & concentrates and blister & anode copper from China in the last few
years.
73