Copper is extracted from its ore that is in mineral form such as sulfides and carbonates. Although copper ore is found throughout the world, the major countries that produce copper ore are:

Copper, as any other good or merchandise, is traded between producers and consumers. Producers sell their current or future production to clients, who transform the metal into shapes or alloys, so that downstream fabricators can transform these into different end-use products. One of the most important factors in trading a commodity such as copper, is the settling of the price for the present day (spot price) or for future days. The role of a commodity exchange is to facilitate and make transparent the process of settling prices. Three commodity exchanges provide the facilities to trade copper: The London Metal Exchange (LME), the Commodity Exchange Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange (COMEX/NYMEX), and the Shanghai Metal Exchange (SHME). In these exchanges, prices are settled by bid and offer, reflecting the market's perception of supply and demand of a commodity on a particular day. On the LME, copper is traded in 25 tonne lots and quoted in US dollars per tonne; on COMEX, copper is traded in lots of 25,000 pounds and quoted in US cents per pound; and on the SHME, Copper is traded in 55 tonnes and quoted in Renminbi per tonne