Mining

Visualizing the Growth of Chinese Copper Miners

Published

3 weeks ago

August 15, 2024

Bruno Venditti

Graphics/Design:

Miranda Smith

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

Visualizing the Growth of Chinese Copper Miners

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

China, with its huge manufacturing sector, is by far the biggest consumer of copper.

Currently, 70% of copper used in China is imported. As a result, the country has invested heavily in copper mines to secure future supply.

This graphic uses exclusive data from our partner, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, to compare copper output from the top three global producers with Chinese miners. Since some of the mining operations have shared ownership, this graphic takes into consideration only the portion of production relative to the company’s stake in each mine.

Chinese Miners Set to Overtake Major Producers by 2025

In 2010, Chinese miners produced a total of 1.2 million tonnes of copper. In that same year, the top producer, Chilean state miner Codelco, produced 1.8 million tonnes, while the world’s largest miner and second-largest copper producer, BHP, produced 1 million tonnes.

Over the years, however, Chinese output has surged while major miners have faced challenges. In 2023, Codelco’s production fell to its lowest level in a quarter of a century due to operational problems and project delays.

	🇨🇳 China					🌐 Rest of World
Year/millions of tonnes	Zijin	CMOC	MMG	Tongling	Other China	BHP	Freeport	Codelco
2010	0.059	0.000	0.001	0.007	1.090	1.021	0.979	1.760
2011	0.061	0.000	0.001	0.006	0.956	0.959	0.959	1.796
2012	0.082	0.000	0.046	0.007	1.070	1.070	0.975	1.805
2013	0.104	0.003	0.184	0.007	1.530	1.129	1.046	1.791
2014	0.116	0.014	0.149	0.007	1.753	1.126	1.074	1.841
2015	0.126	0.040	0.199	0.007	1.810	1.085	1.230	1.891
2016	0.134	0.047	0.374	0.007	1.984	1.023	1.388	1.827
2017	0.178	0.155	0.422	0.011	1.978	0.995	1.222	1.842
2018	0.212	0.127	0.383	0.019	1.967	1.161	1.239	1.807
2019	0.299	0.140	0.315	0.031	2.046	1.197	1.104	1.706
2020	0.377	0.173	0.272	0.066	2.290	1.147	1.081	1.727
2021	0.518	0.192	0.235	0.093	2.378	1.068	1.328	1.728
2022	0.750	0.226	0.214	0.123	2.440	1.180	1.327	1.553
2023F	0.828	0.329	0.236	0.134	2.298	1.283	1.302	1.442
2024F	0.886	0.460	0.301	0.121	2.421	1.423	1.421	1.414
2025F	0.980	0.467	0.309	0.158	2.441	1.471	1.342	1.531
2026F	1.031	0.467	0.332	0.206	2.477	1.513	1.369	1.591
2027F	1.036	0.568	0.332	0.255	2.467	1.383	1.345	1.600
2028F	1.058	0.698	0.332	0.255	2.467	1.186	1.286	1.580

Meanwhile, China’s biggest copper producer, Zijin Mining, saw its production rise from 0.059 million tonnes in 2010 to 0.8 million tonnes last year.

Combined, Chinese companies produced 3.2 million tonnes of copper in 2023, compared to the combined production of 4 million tonnes by Codelco, Freeport-McMoRan (the biggest copper producer in the U.S.), and BHP.

According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence data, Chinese miners are forecasted to surpass the three top producers in 2025, with a combined production of 4.4 million tonnes compared to 4.3 million tonnes from Codelco, BHP, and Freeport.