List of the World's Largest Copper Smelters

Based on Statista data, the Guixi smelter in China is currently the world's largest copper smelter. Owned by Jiangxi Copper, it has a capacity of 600,000 tons.

Birla's smelter in India ranks second, with a capacity of 500,000 tons.

The Chuquicamata smelter in Chile, Jinchuan in China, Hamburg in Germany, Besshi in Japan, and Saganoseki in Japan follow, each with a capacity of 450,000 tons.

The final three smelters on the list also share the same capacity of 400,000 tons: El Teniente in Chile, Chifeng in China, and Chinalco Southeast Copper in China.

Indonesia is not included in this list. However, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) inaugurated Freeport Indonesia's copper smelter in Gresik, East Java, on October 12, 2021. This smelter is touted to become the world's largest, with a copper capacity of 1.7 million tons.

According to 2017 data from the US Geological Survey, China had the largest smelter capacity at 5.5 million tons. Chile and Japan followed with capacities of 1.5 million tons and 1.2 million tons, respectively.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, a smelter is a facility used to extract base metals from metal ores using heat and chemical reducing agents derived from carbon. The carbon source serves to remove oxygen from the ore, resulting in pure metallic elements as the product.