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mines section

The ground

Mines and deposits

Named operations: the orebody each one sits on, who runs it, what comes out and what comes out with it. Almost nothing is mined alone — most metals arrive as somebody else’s by-product.

Big truck looks small in an open pit mine · Rob and Stephanie Levy from Townsville, Australia · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

All · 44 Copper · 18 Silver · 9 Gold · 8 Cobalt · 7 Molybdenum · 7 Lithium · 6 Nickel · 4 Rare Earths (all) · 4 Iron Ore · 3 Manganese · 3 Neodymium · 3 Palladium · 3 Platinum · 3 Praseodymium · 3 Uranium · 3 Cerium · 2

Australia · 9 Chile · 5 United States · 5 Canada · 4 Democratic Republic of the Congo · 4 China · 3 Indonesia · 2 Russia · 2 South Africa · 2 Argentina · 1 Botswana · 1 Brazil · 1 Gabon · 1 Mali · 1 Mongolia · 1 Morocco · 1 Peru · 1

2 operations. Operator and ownership are as publicly reported by the operators; scale is described rather than asserted with a production figure unless the operator publishes one.

Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.

Mine	Country	Operator	Type	Deposit	Produces	Since
Grasberg Papua	Indonesia	Freeport-McMoRan / PT-FI	Underground block cave (formerly open pit)	Porphyry / skarn copper-gold	Copper, Gold, Silver	1973
Sorowako Sulawesi	Indonesia	PT Vale Indonesia	Open pit + smelter	Nickel laterite	Nickel, Cobalt	1977

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Grasberg

Grasberg

One of the largest copper deposits and among the largest gold deposits ever mined.

IndonesiaUnderground block cave

Sorowako

Sorowako

One of Indonesia's long-established integrated nickel operations.

IndonesiaOpen pit + smelter