Copper stocks secured for the long term

Copper is a core material for renewable energies and the decarbonisation of industry. Sufficient raw material reserves are available. The picture shows copper production at Atlantic Copper (Freeport-McMoRan) in Huelva, Spain.
Picture: Atlantic Copper

Good news for all users of copper raw materials: Global copper reserves have increased from 870 to 1,000 million tonnes according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Weltweite Kupferreserven und -ressourcen in Mio. Tonnen. Abbildung nicht maßstabsgetreu. Quelle: USGS, 2024.
Bild: Kupferverband

With a workforce of approx. 1.8 million employees and a gross value creation of 216 billion euros, companies belonging to the copper industry’s added-value chain play an important part within the German economy. Above all, the automotive sector and mechanical engineering rely on this raw material for many of their products. Copper is also irreplaceable for increasing the amount of renewable energy. Good news for everyone using copper raw materials: global copper reserves have increased from 870 to 1,000 million tonnes according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The German Copper Association (Kupferverband) has presented a resume of the current figures in a factsheet.

Copper reserves in million tonnes (USGS, 2024).
Picture: Kupferverband

Overall, the number of known copper deposits and thus also the copper reserves has been steadily increasing over the years. The assumption is that this trend will continue in the future. According to USGS data, there have been 40 years of copper reserves and more than 200 years of copper resources available on average since 1950. These include reserves, deposits that have already been discovered and are potentially profitable as well as undiscovered reserves which have been predicted based on preliminary geological surveys. These copper resources currently amount to a total of 5,600 million tonnes according to the USGS (2024).

Mine production in million tonnes (USGS, 2024)
Bild: Kupferverband

Broad access to copper deposits

The production of copper does not depend on a single country or region, as in case of other raw materials. Global copper supply chains are not limited to a few suppliers or supplying countries. Therefore the risk of restricted access is less than for, e.g. critical raw materials such as rare earths. This leads to greater stability for the copper market and lowers the risk profile. According the DERA list of raw materials, copper ore is more likely to carry a low risk, while copper refinement is under medium risk with relation to the concentration in individual countries and the weighted risk of each country. This geological availability is guaranteed even over a long time due to the still large reserves of copper in South America (Chile, Peru), but also in other parts of the world (e.g. Australia).

Optimising copper mining through technical advancement

When meeting the challenges inherent in new copper mining enterprises, technology also plays an important part. The innovations introduced by the copper industry will increase the rate of success for deep exploration and other difficult task areas in the medium term, improve the usability ratio for mining processes and thus allow operators to mine more complex ores, which again guarantees a constant supply of copper in the long term. There are several copper mine projects being tested or developed right now which will contribute to the future growth of supply. Currently, global mining output is at approx. 22 million tonnes of copper while mining capacity is at 27 million tonnes.

Valuable secondary raw material: copper scrap.
Picture: Pixabay

The circular economy as an urban copper mine

Recycling copper raw materials (secondary copper) has currently become another important copper source apart from mining ore (primary copper). Worldwide, currently more than 35 percent of the required amount is provided through recycled copper, significantly decreasing the need for copper from mines. Recycling and expanding the circular economy are of great importance for the availability of copper in Europe and especially in Germany. This becomes visible in the high level of recycling performance indicators, with “recycled content” at 40 percent and “end-of-life recycling rate” at 80 percent in Germany in 2022 (source: BGR/DERA, 2024). Another benefit: producing copper from secondary raw materials needs only a maximum of 20 percent of the energy necessary to extract primary copper from ore and concentrates. Globally, this saves roughly 100 million MWh in electricity and reduces annual carbon emissions by 40 million tonnes. In principle, copper can also be recycled permanently without any loss of quality across all applications.
The factsheet by the German Copper Association is available for download from the association’s home page at www.kupfer.de.
Source: German Copper Association (Kupferverband)