There are many countries that are working on copper production and these countries are spread around the world. Among mines that are producing copper, they also give other metals like gold as well. Barrick King Barrick Gold is one of the largest gold mining companies with activities and projects in 15 countries. In addition to gold, the company also produces copper. The company's copper business includes a (wholly owned) copper mine in Zambia and a 50% stake in two copper mines in Chile and Saudi Arabia. The three mines produced a combined 383 million pounds of copper in 2018, while the Zambian mine produced more than 224 million pounds. Gold is the largest source of rare currencies. In 2018, precious metals accounted for 91% of the company's revenue, with copper coming in second with a 7% share.
Barik Gold's primary focus is to create the world's most valuable gold company. However, copper is an important metal for the company. As a result, Barrick and its partners approved the development of the "Zaldivar" copper mine in Chile. Barrick also owns a Pascualama deposit that spans parts of Chile and Argentina. It is one of the largest untapped silver and gold deposits in the world. It also contains enough copper to produce up to 5,000 tons of copper per year. Although Barrick Gold's priority is gold, it clearly does not want to ignore the rising copper market. Newmont Gold Corporation The company "Newmont", one of the leading companies in the field of gold production, merged with the company "Goldcorp" in 2019. The company manages a number of mines in nine countries, and its main product is gold. It also mines lead, zinc, silver, and copper. Newmont Goldcorp owns two copper mines. The largest of these is Baddington, Australia, which produced 77 million pounds of copper last year. Another mine in the US is called "Phoenix". The mine, co-invested with Barik Gold Company, produced 32 million pounds of copper last year. Gold accounts for 90% of money creation and is an important source of income and an important driving force for company growth. Meanwhile, Newmont Goldcorp expects copper production to fall to 100 million pounds. However, the company has long-term plans to develop copper projects. From 2020 to 2025, the company may invest up to $2 billion in the Yanacocha mine in Peru. The project adds an annual production equivalent to 500,000 gold ounces to the company, while 40% of its revenue can come from the sale of copper, 50% gold, and 10% silver.
In addition, the company has a share of 50% of the discovery of two copper-gold projects, and taking these projects into account, it can be said that there will be a great capacity to increase copper production in the future. 1 - Chile Chile's copper production fell for the second consecutive year in 2017 to 5.33 million tons but became the world's largest copper producer. 2 - Peru Peru's copper production increased from 2 million tons and 340,000 tons in 2016 to 2 million tons and 390,000 tons in 2017, making it the world's second-largest copper producer. Despite last year's strike in the country's copper mines, Peru's production was boosted by investments in copper mines of $28 billion and $270 million. 3-China China is the largest copper consumer in the world. Although copper production in 2017 decreased compared to the previous year, it can still maintain third place in the world with a production of 1 million and 860,000 tons of copper. China's copper imports fell last year as production fell due to the country's plans to reduce air pollution. 4 - United States US copper production faced a decline in 2017, from 1 million 430 thousand tons in 2016 to 1 million 270 thousand tons in 2017. The USGS attributed this too technical problems caused by lower copper ore grades and unfavorable weather.
5 - Australia In 2017, Australia's copper production reached 920,000 tons, a decrease of 28,000 tons. According to the survey, copper production in the second half of 2017 fell by 31% year-on-year. BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mine to cut production BHP Billiton also faced significant production cuts last year. 6 - Congo Congo's copper production rose slightly from 846,000 tons to 850,000 tons in 2017 compared to 2016. The Glencore-controlled Katanga mine is one of the country's biggest copper producers. 7 - Zambia Copper production in the country decreased slightly compared to 2016. The decrease was due to lower production at the Konkola copper mine, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Company, due to lower copper ore grades in the current year at the mine. 8 - Mexico Copper production in the country increased slightly compared to 2016, from 752,000 tons to 755,000 tons. The Mexican conglomerate, which owns 85 percent of Southern Copper, is one of the world's largest copper producers and is located in the country. In 2017, around 65% of the company's revenue came from copper production, and the company claims to have the world's largest copper reserves. Copper production is expected to increase by 69% this year. 9 - Indonesia Indonesia recently joined the list of the world's largest copper producers, despite the country facing a decline in production in 2017, with copper output falling from 727,000 tons in 2016 to 650,000 tons last year, but it ranks ninth.
10 - Canada Canada also faced a decline in copper production last year, from 708,000 tons in 2016 to 620,000 tons in 2017, placing the country at the bottom of the 2017 list of the world's top 10 copper producers.
- copper producing countries
The top 10 countries producing copper were mentioned above but let's see what is the copper itself. There are relatively easy ways to extract and process copper, often a by-product of silver and other minerals. About 40% of copper consumption is used in the electricity industry. Recycled copper is copper obtained by melting scrap copper and old copper alloys. Copper has three grades of electrolytic copper, sea copper and cast copper with a purity of more than 99.99%. The absorption of copper is essential for the body, and humans can tolerate large amounts of it. But releasing copper in large quantities can cause side effects such as headaches and dizziness and damage to the brain and kidneys. Copper is dispersed in the environment through natural resources and human activities. Sources include dust from the wind, rotting plants, forest fires and ocean droplets. Other contributors to copper emissions are mining, metal production, wood production and phosphate fertilizer production. Copper does not degrade in the environment, so its presence in soil can lead to accumulation in plants and animals. Depending on the acidity of the soil and the amount of organic matter, this element is considered a serious threat to farms and animals. Copper contains important sulphide, oxide and carbonate compounds. Most copper ores contain less than 1% copper and are generally concentrated before smelting. 
The most important copper ore is chalcopyrite, called chalcopyrite. Chalcocite contains copper sulfur (Cu2S) and chalcopyrite or red chalcocite is copper oxide (Cu2O). Natural olivine ore is used to produce black amorphous powder black copper oxide (CuO). What are the technical specifications of copper:
- The atomic mass is 63.546 grams.
- The volumetric mass at 25 degrees Celsius is 8.96 grams per cubic centimeter.
- Melting point is 1357 Kelvin.
- The boiling point is 2835 Kelvin.
- The plasma temperature was 8280 Kelvin.
- The coefficient of linear thermal expansion at 25 degrees Celsius is 0.0000165/Kelvin.
- The tensile strength is 17 kg/mm2.
- Yield strength is 10 kg/mm2.
- The elongation at break is 35% to 50%.
- Hardness is 35 to 50 Brinell.
- The ductility of copper facilitates both hot forming (e.g. hot rolling and forging) and cold forming (e.g. cold rolling and forging).
- Its machinability is relatively poor.
- The main industrial uses of copper are its high electrical conductivity and good corrosion resistance.
Corrosion resistance Pure copper has good corrosion resistance. Therefore, copper is used in large quantities in the food industry. Pressure cookers and plumbing in the food industry are made of copper. Copper is also widely used in the oil and textile industries.
Electrical and thermal conductivity For most elements, thermal and electrical conductivities are equivalent. The same applies to copper, so it has high thermal conductivity. Therefore, it is widely used in the heat exchanger and condenser tubes. Although silver has higher conductivity than copper, copper has the lowest resistance for a given volume of the coil because silver has 5% higher conductivity than copper, but its volume mass is 15% higher than copper. The conductivity of copper decreases with the presence of other impurity elements. Figure 3 shows the effect of impurities on reducing copper conductivity. It can be seen that phosphorus, arsenic, and aluminum have the greatest effect in reducing the conductivity of copper, while silver, although the best conductor, has less effect in reducing the conductivity of copper. What are the types of copper and its alloys? 1-Pure copper: more than 99.3% copper. 2- High copper alloys: They have between 96% and 99.3% copper and silver can be added for special properties. 3- Brass: They use zinc as the main alloying element and add other elements such as iron, aluminum, nickel, and silicon to improve the properties of the alloy. Brass has high corrosion resistance and tensile strength. Characteristics of copper What are the main properties of copper:
- Copper has the properties of hardness, ductility and ductility.
- Excellent thermal conductivity
- excellent electrical conductivity
- good corrosion resistance
- good biological resistance
- Maintain electrical and mechanical properties at subcooled temperatures
What are the uses of copper:
- Copper is a flexible and malleable metal that has a number of applications in the following areas:
- it is used for copper wire
- it is used for copper pipes
- Door handles and other household items
- For example, the Statue of Liberty contains 179,000 pounds of copper.
- Motors, especially electromagnetic motors.
- Switches and electronic amplifiers.
- Vacuum lamps, cathode ray lamps and magnetrons for microwave ovens.
- Waveguides for microwave radiation.
- The use of copper instead of aluminum in ICs is increasing because of its better conductivity than aluminum.
- it is used as part of a coin
- In cookware, including pans.
- Most cutlery, spoons, forks and knives have some copper (nickel silver).
- If 925 sterling silver is used in tableware, it must contain a small amount of copper.
- It is used as part of ceramic glazes and glass staining
- it is used for musical instruments, especially wind instruments
- Acts as a biosuppressant for hospitals and covers various parts of the ship against clams and mussels
- Compounds used in chemistry, such as Flynn's solution.
- Copper sulfate is used as a poison and water purifier.
copper wire Copper wire is a wire made using copper metal. The cathode copper is then sorted and charged in a process that is poured and refined in special cathode furnaces called shaft furnaces before reaching the casting stage. In this way, the cathode copper is converted into copper wire by continuous casting. copper wire 
Copper wire is made of copper wire. In this way, they are stretched and transformed into different sizes using special equipment. The thickness of the copper wire is between 0.7 and 10 mm, depending on its application. The copper wire produced in the market is available in the form of coils and branches. Typically, copper wire is produced in coil form in weights of 15, 30, and 50 kg. In addition, branch copper wires are generally available in lengths of 1 meter, 2 meters, and 3 meters. Different gauges of copper wire make it useful for different applications. For example, a coating thickness of 0.07 is used for all types of sewing needles and staples. Quality of copper wire and copper wire Since oxides can degrade desired physical properties, such as electrical conductivity, removing oxygen from copper will be an important process to improve copper wire quality. There are two ways to remove oxygen from copper: Using carbon to remove or reduce oxygen: In this method, activated carbon is used and oxygen is absorbed by the carbon and separated from the copper. This method is the easiest and most effective way to remove oxygen. Use of oxygen-reducing elements: addition of phosphorus, aluminum, and other elements to reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen. The point of this method is that you need to know the exact amount of oxygen dissolved in the melt so that the oxygen reducing agent dissolves in the correct amount. Otherwise, it will cause fluctuations in the quality of manufactured products. Copper is considered a widely used metal in various industries due to its ability to alloy widely with metals and to produce alloys with a wide range of applications. Cathode copper is the main material for the production of wires with various properties in the electrical and electronic industry. The highest consumption of cathode copper is in the electrical and electronics industry.