Market Survey on Copper - Indian Bureau of Mines

Hitachi refinery & Tamano smelter and refinery with a total capacity of 710 thousand
tonnes. The other major smelters are Besshi/Toyo (Saijyo) refinery of Sumitomo
Metal Mining Co. Ltd., Onahama refinery of Onahama Refining and Smelting Co.
Ltd. and Naoshima Refinery of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation.
Japan is the third major producer of refined copper in the world. The
production of refined copper in 2003 was 1430 thousand tonnes increased to 1540
thousand tonnes in 2008 and decreased to 1440 thousand tonnes in 2009.
Japan is a major exporter of refined copper after, Chile, Zambia, Peru and
Kazakhstan. Japan contributed to world’s total refined copper exports with 627
thousand tonnes of exports. The main destination of Japan's refined copper export
was China, Taiwan and South Korea.
Mexico
The principal copper deposits of Mexico are located in an extension of Arizona
belt of North America. These deposits are situated at about 61 km South West of
Bisbec, Arizona. The area forms one of the largest copper bearing districts. The
deposits are associated with fairly good quantity of gold and silver. The major
deposits amongst these are Cananea, Carided and Nacozar and the major mining
companies are MEDIMESA and Min-Maria working in La Girded EW and
Mariquitarw mines respectively. Major Mexican copper production comes from these
deposits and remaining is contributed by lead-zinc, copper deposits as a byproduct.
Grupo Mexico was the major producer of copper ore having two mines namely,
La Caridad and another mine at Cananea both located in Son. Other producers are
Minera Maria S.A. and Cobre de Mexico.
Mexico has reserves of 38 million tonnes of copper content claiming 3 rd
position in the world and the mine production of copper is 238 thousand tonnes of
contained copper in 2009. The smelter capacity of Mexico was about 500 thousand
tonnes. As far as smelter production of copper is concerned, Mexico produced 261
thousand tonnes in 2003 in terms of copper content which came down to 169
thousand tonnes in 2009.
The exports of copper ores & concentrates from Mexico are showing a
decreasing trend. However there was an increasing trend in the exports of refined
copper. The exports of refined copper which were at 23 thousand tonnes in 2004
increased to 62 thousand tonnes in 2007 and then started decreasing to reach33
thousand tonnes in 2009.
Peru
Peru enjoys a very strategic position in the field of copper. The reserves of
copper are 63 million tonnes of contained copper, second in the entire world. There
are 4 important deposits of copper in Peru namely, Cerro-de-Pasco, Moracocha,
Cuajone and Toquepala. Cerro-de-Pasco is the largest deposit in Peru. The reserves
of copper ore in Cerro-de-Pasco deposit were estimated at 731 million tonnes with an
average grade of 0.66% Cu. The Moracocha deposit has comparatively low ore
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