Escondida means “hidden” in Spanish, and the deposit was given the name because it has no outcrops the main orebody is hidden below hundreds of meters of overburden.Ĭopper production figures can change rapidly, but in the 2020 financial year, Escondida’s total production reached 1,185 kilotonnes.
The biggest copper-producing mine in the world is currently the Escondida mine in Chile, which is jointly owned by BHP (NYSE: BHP,ASX:BHP,LSE:BHP) and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO,ASX:RIO,LSE:RIO). While they do not have the highest grades of ore and generally have more expensive refining costs, they tend to have large mineral resources. Historically, the world’s most profitable copper mines have been large-scale porphyry deposits with chalcopyrite mineralization extracted via open-pit mining.
As such, there are various factors to consider when determining the value of different types of copper deposits. Copper Theft Rising Alongside Stronger Copper PricesĬopper mineralization occurs in many forms and in a variety of geological settings.
The Copper Price Today: A Brief Overview.The quantum and timeframe of the targets is debatable and should be the outcome of a political process. In addition to the integration of resource management concerns, as recommended by several well researched submissions, in goals being proposed on energy, food, water, and sustainable urban development, this paper also advocates the adoption of a separate SDG on sustainable resource management to focus on the need for efficient use of natural resources in an equitable and environmentally benign manner aimed at decoupling economic growth rates from escalating resource use and environmental degradation.Įxamples of possible targets are also provided in this paper to illustrate the kind of measurements required and provide an outline of the trajectory to be adopted. Given the International Resource Panel's mission and responsibility for raising the visibility and sense of urgency regarding efficient and effective utilization of natural resources and related concerns among decision-makers and the public, this report advocates and promotes the embedding of the rational management of the natural resource base of economic and social development throughout the Post-2015 development agenda and the process for the establishment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiated in Rio+20.