Copper, also known as Cu, is one of the oldest elements. It is reddish with a bright metallic lustre colored solid. Copper occurs naturally in the Earth’s crust in a variety of forms. It can be found in sulfide deposits, carbonate deposits, in silicate deposits and as pure “Native” copper. From these, copper is obtained by smelting, leaching, and electrolysis. 80% of copper cathodes outputs are refined from the sulfide concentrate, though the copper content is only 2-3%.

Chile remains by far the largest mine producer of copper in the world. However, China is the biggest producer of refined copper in the world closely followed by Chile. Other major copper producing countries are Peru, Australia, Indonesia, Russia, China, Canada, Zambia and Poland. In terms of consumption, Asia consumes over half of the world copper. China is the single largest consumer with about 25% of the total global demand.

India accounts for 3 percent of the global copper output. The annual production of copper is approx. 708,000 tons in 2008. India is largely dependent in import of raw material to manufacture copper and involved in importing copper ores and extracts copper out of them. However, small quantities of copper that are produced in India are extracted from the copper mines situated at Khetri and Malanjkhand in the country.