plate 185 · 2024 data

DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years

Copper mine production by country, million tonnes of copper content, 2014 vs 2024.

Africa's century
  1. 1. By 2100, more than 1 in 3 people will be African
  2. 2. Nearly half the world's under-25s will be African by 2100
  3. 3. DR Congo is projected to outgrow the US by 2100
  4. 4. Kinshasa will soon be bigger than Paris and London combined
  5. 5. Two-thirds of the world's mobile money moves in Africa
  6. 6. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
  7. 7. Africa's solar imports more than doubled since early 2024
  8. 8. DR Congo mines three-quarters of the world's cobalt
  9. 9. Nearly two in three people in Africa are still offline
  10. 10. Africa formally recycles less than 1% of its e-waste
  11. 11. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
  12. 12. Nigeria's cities now hold more people than Japan's
  13. 13. Sudan now has the world's most people displaced at home
  14. 14. Nigeria now has almost 25 million more people than Brazil
  15. 15. Six of the ten fastest-growing big cities are African
  16. 16. Africa now has more hungry people than Asia
  17. 17. Six in ten child deaths now happen in sub-Saharan Africa
  18. 18. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
  19. 19. Nigeria now eats more rice than Japan
  20. 20. More sub-Saharan Africans now have mobile money than bank accounts
  21. 21. Sub-Saharan Africa's cities now hold more people than Latin America's
  22. 22. DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years
2.9×

DR Congo mined 2.99 million tonnes of copper in 2024, up from 1.03 million in 2014.

#2

It passed Peru, China and the US to become the world's second-biggest copper miner, behind only Chile.

13%

Its share of world copper mining in 2024, up from 6%: more of the metal behind grids and motors now comes from central Africa.

Source: USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 and 2016: Copper, 2024
the numbers & method
DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years. Source: USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 and 2016: Copper, 2024.
Copper mined (Mt)2014 (Mt)
Chile5.515.75
DR Congo2.991.03
Peru2.741.38
China1.841.76
United States1.051.36
Russia1.020.74
Zambia0.820.71

Claim types Fact · Interpretation

U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Copper (world mine production, thousand metric tons, copper content), for 2024; and Mineral Commodity Summaries 2016, Copper (https://apps.usgs.gov/minerals-information-archives/mcs/mcs2016.pdf), for 2014. USGS names the country Congo (Kinshasa). 2024 (thousand t): Chile 5,510; Congo (Kinshasa) 2,990; Peru 2,740; China 1,840; Russia 1,020; United States 1,050; Zambia 823; world 23,000 (rounded). 2014: Chile 5,750; China 1,760; Peru 1,380; United States 1,360; Congo (Kinshasa) 1,030; Russia 742; Zambia 708; world 18,500 (rounded). USGS's 2025 estimate keeps DR Congo second (3,200 vs Peru 2,700). Derived by progrss: growth 2,990 ÷ 1,030 = 2.9×; shares of world 13.0% (2024) and 5.6% (2014), using USGS's rounded world totals; ranks among countries listed (2014: 5th, 2024: 2nd). Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mexico and others are left off the chart (not listed separately in the 2016 edition, or smaller). Takeaway 3's second clause is an interpretation. USGS data are in the public domain.

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