Key facts
Affected by declining ore grades at Chile's Escondida mine and production challenges at the Pampa Norte operation, BHP, the world's largest copper producer, produced approximately 968,700 tonnes of copper in the first half, down 6% year-on-year. Q2 output was 491,900 tonnes, down 5% y/y. Freeport-McMoRan's Q2 consolidated copper output was about 356,500 tonnes, down 18.4% y/y; H1 consolidated copper output was about 656,800 tonnes, down 20.9% y/y.
Projects and capacity
At its Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia, where a wet-muck inflow incident occurred in September 2025, capacity utilization is expected to recover to about 65% in H2 2026, approaching full capacity by end-2027. Ivanhoe Mines' H1 copper output fell 49% y/y, the steepest decline among the 15 miners surveyed, mainly due to the impact of seismic events and water inflows at the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in the DRC, which it operates with Zijin Mining. Ivanhoe's 2026 production guidance is about 300,000 tonnes, nearly halved from the 600,000-tonne annualized plan before the seismic event.