DR Congo passed Chile in refined copper
Refined copper output, DR Congo vs Chile, million tonnes, 2019 and 2025. USGS.
- 1. By 2100, more than 1 in 3 people will be African
- 2. Nearly half the world's under-25s will be African by 2100
- 3. DR Congo is projected to outgrow the US by 2100
- 4. Kinshasa will soon be bigger than Paris and London combined
- 5. Two-thirds of the world's mobile money moves in Africa
- 6. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
- 7. Africa's solar imports more than doubled since early 2024
- 8. DR Congo mines three-quarters of the world's cobalt
- 9. Nearly two in three people in Africa are still offline
- 10. Africa formally recycles less than 1% of its e-waste
- 11. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
- 12. Nigeria's cities now hold more people than Japan's
- 13. Sudan now has the world's most people displaced at home
- 14. Nigeria now has almost 25 million more people than Brazil
- 15. Six of the ten fastest-growing big cities are African
- 16. Africa now has more hungry people than Asia
- 17. Six in ten child deaths now happen in sub-Saharan Africa
- 18. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
- 19. Nigeria now eats more rice than Japan
- 20. More sub-Saharan Africans now have mobile money than bank accounts
- 21. Sub-Saharan Africa's cities now hold more people than Latin America's
- 22. DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years
- 23. Nitrogen dioxide over Khartoum fell 39% after war began
- 24. Countries mostly without electricity fell from 33 to 15
- 25. Seven in ten West African mobile money accounts sit idle
- 26. Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
- 27. Guinea overtook Australia as the world's biggest bauxite miner
- 28. DR Congo passed Chile in refined copper
- 29. Burkina Faso now sends half its exports to the UAE
DR Congo's refined copper equalled 88% of its mine output in 2025 (2.8 of 3.2 Mt), up from 84% in 2019.
Chile, the top miner, refined 1.7 Mt of the 5.3 Mt it dug, down from 2.27 Mt refined in 2019.
The year DR Congo passed Chile in refined copper, 2.17 vs 2.08 Mt: more of the metal's value stays in central Africa.
the numbers & method
| 2019 (Mt) | 2025 (Mt) | |
|---|---|---|
| DR Congo | 1.08 | 2.80 |
| Chile | 2.27 | 1.70 |
Claim types Fact · Estimate · Interpretation
U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Copper, table 'World Mine and Refinery Production and Reserves', thousand metric tons of copper content; 2025 values are USGS estimates. 2025e mine / refinery: Chile 5,300 / 1,700; Congo (Kinshasa) 3,200 / 2,800; Peru 2,700 / 340; China 1,800 / 14,000; Russia 1,300 / 950; United States 1,000 / 850; Zambia 940 / 270; Australia 730 / 460; Indonesia 710 / 400; Kazakhstan 710 / 500; Mexico 690 / 480; world 23,000 / 29,000 (rounded). Earlier years from earlier editions: MCS 2025 (https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-copper.pdf), refinery 2023: Congo (Kinshasa) 2,170, Chile 2,080; MCS 2024 (https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-copper.pdf), refinery 2022: Congo 1,770, Chile 2,150; MCS 2021 (https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2021/mcs2021-copper.pdf), refinery 2019: Congo 1,080, Chile 2,270; mine 2019: Congo 1,290, Chile 5,790. China is left off the chart for scale: it mined 1.8 Mt and refined 14.0 Mt in 2025 (estimate), almost half of world refined output, mostly from imported ore and scrap. Refined-to-mined ratios (DR Congo 87.5%, Chile 32.1%) are progrss calculations; they compare national tonnages and do not trace which ore each refinery used. Refinery output can include metal from imported concentrate and from scrap; the MCS world table does not define refinery production (the US salient statistics split refinery output into primary, from ore, and secondary, from scrap). Takeaway 3's second clause is an interpretation. USGS data are in the public domain.
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