Commodity Profile – Copper

The document details the global copper market, highlighting Chile as the top producer and China's dominance in refining and consumption. It examines the transition to electric vehicles as a demand driver, the challenges of end-of-life recycling, and the environmental risks associated with copper production, particularly water scarcity in producing regions.

• Chile is the world's leading copper producer, with a production volume of 5,300 thousand metric tonnes, representing 10.6% of the global share.
• The copper supply chain exhibits high market concentration in the downstream stages; while mining is diversified, China dominates refining at 61% and smelting at just over 50%.
• Global copper reserves are significantly smaller than total known resources, with reserves accounting for 980,000 thousand metric tonnes, while unextracted resources were estimated at 1.5 billion metric tonnes and undiscovered resources at 3.5 billion metric tonnes as of 2015.
• China's copper consumption grew from approximately 11,000 Mt in 2015 to about 15,000 Mt in 2024, driven largely by transport and industrial applications.
• Despite copper's ability to be recycled repeatedly without quality loss, the end-of-life recycling rate (EoL RR) was only 40% in 2020 due to insufficient industrial collection and reprocessing infrastructure.
• The emissions profile of refined copper is distributed across Scope 1 (24%), Scope 2 (46%), and Scope 3 (30%).

APA

Hamisi, J., Rezola, O. A., Madi, D., Bellois, G., Ramdoo, I., Gottschalk, E., & Gulley, A. (2026). Commodity Profile – Copper. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/commodity-profile-copper.pdf

Chicago

Hamisi, Jonathan, Ottavia Austin Rezola, Dalia Madi, Grégoire Bellois, Isabelle Ramdoo, Erin Gottschalk, and Andrew Gulley. Commodity Profile – Copper. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2026. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/commodity-profile-copper.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hamisi |first1=Jonathan |last2=Rezola |first2=Ottavia Austin |last3=Madi |first3=Dalia |last4=Bellois |first4=Grégoire |last5=Ramdoo |first5=Isabelle |last6=Gottschalk |first6=Erin |last7=Gulley |first7=Andrew |title=Commodity Profile – Copper |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=2026 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/commodity-profile-copper.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hamisi2026commodity, author = {Hamisi, Jonathan and Rezola, Ottavia Austin and Madi, Dalia and Bellois, Grégoire and Ramdoo, Isabelle and Gottschalk, Erin and Gulley, Andrew}, title = {{Commodity Profile – Copper}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/commodity-profile-copper.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }