Copper market’s biggest whale fuels speculation of a major shift
The world’s single biggest buyer of copper, State Grid Corp. of China, has slowed its purchases of copper wire this year.
Chile is not only the largest copper producer in the world, but also the country with the largest worldwide reserves of the red metal, reveals the latest commodity report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
According to the agency, Chile has 28% of the world reserves, more than twice the reserves that neighbour Peru, second global copper producer. It means that the South American country has reserves of 190,000 million tons of copper, 26% more than it was thought (150,000 million tons), which guarantees copper extraction for the next 100 years, at the current extraction rate.
The other countries with the largest copper reserves in the world, according to USGS, are Peru (90,000 million tons), Australia (86,000), Mexico (38,000), the U.S. (35,000), Russia (30,000), China (30,000), Indonesia (28,000) and Poland (26,000).
The steady rise in copper prices has made of Chile’s economy one of the strongest and most robust of Latin America, as the red metal represents over 40% of the country’s exports, and its main source of income. Chile currently produces more than a third of the worldwide copper.
Comments
Batu Manjiljav
Is the numbers right? or it has couple extra ‘000?
Chile’s annual copper production is around 5 million tonnes. In the article it was said its reserve is 190,000 million tons and it has 100 years reserve with a current production rate. 190,000,000,000 tons divide 5 million= 35000 years??? which number in the article is a mistake ???