Semi-finished product · Metals
Copper
One kilogram of refined copper cathode
This page shows what the product is made of and where each figure comes from. It shows no death toll. The toll is computed from this bill of materials from session 19, and published only once it has an uncertainty interval and has passed a backtest.
Refined copper cathode. The register's copper is mine production as the U.S. Geological Survey reports it — recoverable copper content — so a kilogram of cathode is a kilogram of that content. Smelting and refining losses, and their energy, are not modelled, so this is a floor.
- Overall grade — low
- Status — draft
Is something on this page wrong? Report it →
What it is made of
Each line is one component of one kilogram of refined copper cathode: how much of it goes in, how much had to be produced for that, and where the figure comes from.
| Component | Quantity | Source |
|---|---|---|
|
Copper
ingredient |
1.00 kg | U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025: Copper — data in copper content…
· low
an element is conserved: one kilogram of copper in, one out; losses not modelled |
Down to raw materials
The whole chain multiplied out — everything one kilogram of refined copper cathode needs, through every intermediate product, with every loss on the way included.
| Input | Per functional unit |
|---|---|
| Copper | 1.00 kg |
An input marked “not in the register” is counted by mass and reaches no supply chain yet. Industries appear as the euros or tonne-kilometres the bill of materials gives them.
How much of it is explicit
100% of this product’s mass is explicit in its own bill of materials.
Its whole chain draws on 1.00 kg of materials, losses included. 100% of that is registered raw materials — the part the model can trace harm to — 0% is inputs not yet in the register, and 0% is a declared remainder.
In the input–output model it belongs to “Manufacture of basic metals” (FIGARO industry C24).
In the input–output model it belongs to “Manufacture of basic precious and other non-ferrous metals” (FIGARO industry C24B).
What uses it
Products whose own bill of materials includes this one.
- Lithium-ion battery pack — 1.62 g in one kilogram of assembled lithium-ion battery pack
- Lithium-ion cell — 86.3 g in one kilogram of lithium-ion battery cells
- Printed circuit board assembly — 214 g in one kilogram of assembled printed circuit board
- Electric car — 31.9 kg in one midsize battery-electric car of 1,769 kg
- Laptop — 48.7 g in one laptop of 2,706 g, the average of 16 disassembled models from 1999 to 2011
- Petrol car — 34.4 kg in one midsize petrol car of 1,385 kg
- Smartphone — 1.62 g in one smartphone of 135 g, the average of 12 disassembled models from 2004 to 2015
The number this page does not show
The harm in this chain is not shown.
The model allocates the harm counted where each raw material is produced to the products that use it. That number is a count of people with a run behind it and no uncertainty interval yet, and nothing of that kind is published before the backtest of session 21. What this page can show without it is the structure: what the product is made of, and where each part of that knowledge comes from.