To help predict where future copper resources might be located, USGS scientists study how and where known copper resources are concentrated in the Earth’s crust and use that knowledge to assess the potential for undiscovered copper resources. Techniques to assess mineral resource potential have been developed and refined by the USGS to support the stewardship of Federal lands and to better evaluate mineral resource availability in a global context.

In the 1990s, the USGS conducted an assessment of U.S. copper resources and concluded that nearly as much copper remained to be found as had already been discovered. Specifically, the USGS found that about 350 million tons of copper had been discovered and estimated that about 290 million tons of copper remained undiscovered in the United States.