“Check Out the Copper Craze! 10 Companies Making the Most of the Metal in 2023

Copper is an essential mineral that is used across various industries and devices, from electric wires to coins to phone batteries. For this reason, the production of copper remains a major industrial effort, and the mining companies responsible for it are some of the largest and wealthiest in the world. This article provides an overview of the ten biggest copper producing companies in the world, based on estimates for 2023 production. Vedanta Limited is the largest copper producer in the world by a considerable margin, based in India and operating in multiple countries. It is estimated that they produced 1.8 million metric tons of copper in 2023, which is an increase of nearly 8 percent from the previous year. They specialize in the production of copper, aluminum, zinc, and lead. Codelco, or the Corporation of Chilean Copper, is the second biggest copper producer in the world and is based in Chile. They produced 1.6 million metric tons of copper in 2023, a slight decrease from the 1.62 million metric tons they produced in 2021. Like Vedanta, Codelco specializes in the production of copper, along with gold, molybdenum, silver, and sulfuric acid. Third on the list is Jiangxi Copper, a Chinese company that produced 1.2 million metric tons of copper in 2023. This was a substantial increase from the previous year, when they produced only 850,000 metric tons. The company specializes in not only copper, but also gold, silver, and zinc. The remaining seven major copper producers are Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold, BHP Billiton, Glencore International, Antofagasta, Jiangxi GanFeng Lithium, Anglo American, and JCCL. Collectively, these companies produced 7.6 million metric tons of copper in 2023, with Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold accounting for the vast majority of production. As demand for copper continues to increase and metal prices remain at elevated levels, these copper producing companies are expected to remain profitable for many years to come.