Differentiate fixed costs and variable costs. 1  Total cost is the sum of fixed and variable costs.  Variable costs change according to the quantity of a good or service being produced. The amount of materials and labor that is needed for to make a good increases in direct proportion to the number of goods produced.
Xtrata is a top five producer of copper, thermal coal, coking coal, ferrochrome, zinc and nickel and has operations in 19 countries. The company's copper production in 2010 was over 900 thousand metric tons and it has copper facilities located in Australia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Canada.
By Karen Norton, Thomson Reuters GFMS. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), Chile is the top copper-producing country in the world by a long shot, so itâs no surprise that most of the worldâs largest copper mines are also located in Chile. In fact, Chile took four of the five top five spots in terms of production last year. To get a bit more insight into the worldâs largest copper mines, The Investing News Network got in touch with Karen Norton, Senior Analyst at Thomson Reuters GFMS.