Refined production

Refined production is the quantity of a metal that has completed smelting and refining into a pure, deliverable form, distinct from a country's own mine production.

Refined production measures a metal after it has completed smelting and refining, reaching the purity that manufacturers and exchanges require, regardless of where the ore or concentrate that fed the process was originally mined. A country with major smelters but modest mining, or none at all, can still post large refined production if it imports concentrate or scrap to process.

Comparing a country’s refined production to its mine production shows whether it is a net processor, importing raw material to refine, or a net raw exporter, sending its ore or concentrate elsewhere to be finished. Some major refined producers have refining capacity for a metal that far exceeds what their own mines supply, built on imported concentrate. See producing vs exporting vs processing.