Copper

A Year’s Extraction of Metal Shown Next to Landmarks and Cities

Published

9 years ago

September 25, 2014

Jeff Desjardins

https://beta.quiet.ly/list/share/db1ed-a-year-s-extraction-of-metal-shown-next-to-cities?width=1070&height=800&showGradient=false&showMapView=false&showAuthor=true&showLogo=true&showListTitle=true&showListDescription=true&showTitles=true&showDescriptions=true&showWeblinks=false&makeClickable=false&sharePage=true&showIcons=true&embedTheme=dark&titleSize=18&titleType=quietly&descriptionSize=14&descriptionType=quietly&useOriginalImages=true&lastSlide=default&lastSlideMsg=&lastSlideUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvisualcapitalist

A Year’s Extraction of Metal Shown Next to Landmarks and Cities

“One death is a tragedy. One million is a statistic.” – Joseph Stalin

For thousands of years of development as a species, humans never really needed to understand the real meaning behind big, unreachable numbers such as billions or trillions. As a result, even today we have difficulty imaging what these seemingly abstract numbers represent.

This is why visualization can be such a powerful tool. Instead of dealing with zeroes, we get to actually see these large numbers applied in a way that we can relate to.

In the above slideshow visualization, we have taken the annual production of eight major commodities (platinum, gold, silver, uranium, nickel, copper, iron, and oil) and imagined that we could lump them together into a large 3d cube. Then, we put the cube within context of a visual scene that we can contrast them with. In this case, famous landmarks and cities.

Some cubes, such as platinum’s, are only the size of a Volkswagen. Others, such as oil, are kilometres on each side and span blocks of major cities.

We also calculated the value of each cube. Amazingly, all precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, palladium, etc.) do not even come close to comparing to the value of iron or oil. It goes to show how rare they are, but also that the size of their markets are sometimes not as massive as we think within the context of the bigger picture.

Special Report: Top 10 Stocks for Autumn 2014

In this 90 page report, Tickerscores covers in-depth the 10 resource companies worth buying this fall. Click here to learn more.

Up Next

The Growth in Residential Solar Energy

Don't Miss

By the Numbers: The Oil & Gas Industry in the United States

Click for Comments

Copper

Ranked: The World’s Largest Copper Producers

Many new technologies critical to the energy transition rely on copper. Here are the world’s largest copper producers.

Published

6 months ago

December 1, 2022

Bruno Venditti

Visualizing the World’s Largest Copper Producers

This was originally posted on Elements. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on natural resource megatrends in your email every week.

Man has relied on copper since prehistoric times. It is a major industrial metal with many applications due to its high ductility, malleability, and electrical conductivity.

Many new technologies critical to fighting climate change, like solar panels and wind turbines, rely on the red metal.

But where does the copper we use come from? Using the U.S. Geological Survey’s data, the above infographic lists the world’s largest copper producing countries in 2021.

The Countries Producing the World’s Copper

Many everyday products depend on minerals, including mobile phones, laptops, homes, and automobiles. Incredibly, every American requires 12 pounds of copper each year to maintain their standard of living.

North, South, and Central America dominate copper production, as these regions collectively host 15 of the 20 largest copper mines.

Chile is the top copper producer in the world, with 27% of global copper production. In addition, the country is home to the two largest mines in the world, Escondida and Collahuasi.

Chile is followed by another South American country, Peru, responsible for 10% of global production.

Rank	Country	2021E Copper Production (Million tonnes)	Share
#1	🇨🇱 Chile	5.6	27%
#2	🇵🇪 Peru	2.2	10%
#3	🇨🇳 China	1.8	8%
#4	🇨🇩 DRC	1.8	8%
#5	🇺🇸 United States	1.2	6%
#6	🇦🇺 Australia	0.9	4%
#7	🇷🇺 Russia	0.8	4%
#8	🇿🇲 Zambia	0.8	4%
#9	🇮🇩 Indonesia	0.8	4%
#10	🇲🇽 Mexico	0.7	3%
#11	🇨🇦 Canada	0.6	3%
#12	🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	0.5	2%
#13	🇵🇱 Poland	0.4	2%
	🌍 Other countries	2.8	13%
	🌐 World total	21.0	100%

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and China share third place, with 8% of global production each. Along with being a top producer, China also consumes 54% of the world’s refined copper.

Copper’s Role in the Green Economy

Technologies critical to the energy transition, such as EVs, batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines require much more copper than conventional fossil fuel based counterparts.

For example, copper usage in EVs is up to four times more than in conventional cars. According to the Copper Alliance, renewable energy systems can require up to 12x more copper compared to traditional energy systems.