The World Copper Factbook 2019 International Copper Study Group 8 Are We Going to Ru n Out of Copper 1 It is highly im pr o b abl e Since 1950 ther e has always been on average 40 years of reserves an d significantly greater amounts of known resourc e s USGS data In addition recycling innovation and mining exploration continue to contribute to the long term avail a bility of copper Despit e increas e d dema nd for copper produc ed from ore in recent years increases in re se r v e s ha ve grown and there is more id e n tif i ed copper a v ail a ble to the world than at any other time in history In the perio d 2008 201 8 197 milli on tonnes of copper hav e bee n mined In that same pe riod how e ver res e r v es have grown by 280 million tonnes This re f l e c ts addi tional explo r ation technologica l advanc es and the evol vin g economics of mining Tec h nology has a key rol e to play in addressing many of the challeng es faced by ne w copper production Known an d as ye t unknown innovations will ensur e ne w mine pro d uction cont inues to pro v ide vital copper supplies In addition copper recycling plays an important role in copper availability since todays primary copper is tomorrows recycled material Unlike other commodities su ch as energy or food copper is not consumed Copper is one of the few raw materials which can be recycled repeat edly without any loss of performanc e and key stakeholders such as policy makers scrap collectors copper pr oducer s and rec y cler s must all focus on ens u ring that yester days metal is recycled and re us ed While this w ill ensur e a progressive move towards a more s u stainabl e economy the loop cannot be completely closed for two reasons Firstly demand will con t inue to increas e due to population growth product innovation and economic developm en t Secondly in most applications copper stays in use for de cade s Consequ e ntl y meeting future metals demand will continue to requi r e a combination of primary raw materials coming from mines as well as recycled materials while innovative policies and technolog y should continue to contribute to improvem ents in recyc ling per f orm a nce and resourc e efficiency Based on the latest knowledge on geological availability and continuous industry innovation there are good reasons to believe that copper will continue to be a vital and positive contributor to society well into the futur e 1 Based on the International Copper Association briefin g note on cop p e r s long term availability See httpcoppe rallianceorg about copp er long term a vailability