Top 5 Copper Producing Countries in The World

4. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Production in 2021: 1.8 million metric tonnes

Congo is fast coming under the radar of investors and copper mining companies because of its large copper reserves and quality grade copper. Ivanhoe Mines’s establishment and commencement of copper production in its Kamoa-Kakula mine was the push that many others needed in the copper industry.  According to Robert Friedland, the founder and co-chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, the DRC is the “Saudi Arabia of copper, cobalt and hydro-electric generation potential.”

In 2021, the country produced 1.8 million metric tonnes of copper. Moreover, the country produced 572,983 tonnes of copper in the first quarter of 2022, up 51% on a YoY basis. The copper exports in 2021 rose by 12.3% to 1.798 million. Kamoa-Kakula is the country’s top copper-producing mine which posted recording-breaking numbers earlier in the year. 25,126 tonnes were milled and 1,202 tonnes of copper was produced.