Buenavista del Cobre: a copper operation in Mexico

Buenavista del Cobre is an open-pit mine producing copper in Sonora, Mexico, operated by Southern Copper. The sources report 414.8 kt copper (323.0 kt copper in concentrate + 91.8 kt SX-EW cathode) for CY2025; the basis is the whole operation. In copper content, whole-operation output for CY2025 is about 414,800 tonnes (derived here, not printed by the source): about 1.8% of world copper output in 2025 and about 60% of Mexico's; it is one of 11 operations on this site whose output can be stated in copper content.

Who owns and operates it?

Owners of Buenavista del Cobre
Owner	Interest	As of
Southern Copper (operator) 99.998% is Southern Copper's interest in Minera México, which holds the Buenavista operation through subsidiaries; the interest in the operating subsidiary itself is not stated	99.998%	31 December 2025

Interests are as stated in the sources below on the date shown. Ownership changes with deals, so a stake may have changed since the date shown.

How much does it produce?

Reported output of Buenavista del Cobre
Period	Output	Basis	Where in the source
CY2025	414.8 kt copper (323.0 kt copper in concentrate + 91.8 kt SX-EW cathode) 323.0 kt in concentrate plus 91.8 kt of SX-EW cathode	Whole operation	Buenavista production table, p.64 ('Copper in concentrate (kt)', 'SX-EW cathode production (kt)') · Southern Copper Corporation
CY2024	433 kt copper (349.0 kt in concentrate + 84.0 kt SX-EW cathode)	Whole operation	Same table, p.64 · Southern Copper Corporation

How the copper-content figure is worked out. Southern Copper reports 323.0 thousand tonnes of copper in concentrate and 91.8 thousand tonnes of SX-EW cathode, which sum to 414.8 thousand tonnes. World mine production of copper in 2025 was 23,000,000 tonnes (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026); Mexico produced 690,000 tonnes.

Status: operating, as of February 2026.

How does it compare?

Other copper operations on this site: Escondida, Cerro Verde, Antamina, Morenci, Grasberg, Kamoa-Kakula, Kamoto Copper Company (KCC), Oyu Tolgoi, Las Bambas, Toquepala. See where copper comes from for the country totals, the country page for Mexico, and Southern Copper for its other operations here.

The same site is also listed for another commodity: Buenavista (zinc) (zinc).

Sources

Southern Copper Corporation: Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025 (annual report (SEC 10-K), CY2025 (with 2024, 2023)). Opened 3 November 2026; used: pp.3-4 (ownership, Minera Mexico 99.998%, Grupo Mexico 88.9%); p.45 (Cuajone); p.49 (Toquepala); p.64 (Buenavista); listing.
U.S. Geological Survey: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Copper (government statistical summary, 2025 (world and country mine production)). Opened 3 November 2026; used: world and country mine production table.

Method and limits

Reported, not estimated. Output is the figure the operator or owner published, in the unit it used. This site does not estimate output where none is published.
Shares. A share divides output in copper content by the USGS world or country total for 2025. Where the operator's year is a fiscal year or the unit is a concentrate or a carbonate equivalent, the share is approximate or not given.
Whole operation or owner's share. The basis column says which. A joint venture's output is never counted twice.
Partial list. Only operations with a published figure are listed, so the rank is among those on this site, not among every copper mine. Shares of a country's output mix periods and bases, so treat them as indicative.
Made with AI assistance, checked against sources. The facts were gathered from the documents above by AI-assisted research and re-checked against those documents by a second, independent pass; the page text is generated from the data. No professional review took place. How the site is made. To report an error, contact us; fixes are logged on the corrections page.