Mine production

Mine production is the quantity of ore or metal extracted directly from mines, measured before any smelting or refining, and distinct from the refined metal that reaches end users.

Mine production counts what actually comes out of the ground: ore or, for metals reported this way, the metal contained within that ore, before any smelting or refining takes place. It is the earliest point in the supply chain where output is commonly measured and compared across countries.

Mine production numbers do not tell the whole story of a country’s role in a metal’s supply chain. A country can be a large source of mine production while having little smelting or refining capacity of its own, exporting nearly all of its ore or concentrate for processing elsewhere. Refined production figures, tracked separately, show where the metal actually finishes its journey to a usable form, and the two totals for the same metal do not need to match for any single country.