Infographic: Why most US copper is from the Southwest

Copper mining in the four southwestern states of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah produces almost all of the United States’ red metal output. In 2024, almost two-thirds of the total came from Arizona alone. The region’s dominance in copper production is based on several factors. Geologically, the four states lie within the red-metal rich Laramide porphyry copper province, also known as the Arizona-Sonora Copper Belt. In addition, a long history of copper extraction – dating back to the late 19th century – has helped establish mining infrastructure, institutional knowledge and culture around copper. Finally, favourable weather and topography allow for year-round mining. The Northern Miner takes a look at the Southwest states’ share of production in 2024 and their top-producing mines.

The total U.S. copper production figure is derived from company- and state-sourced data. It exceeds the official USGS recoverable copper estimate of 997,903 tonnes because of differences in reporting periods, definitions, and potentially underreported smaller operations.