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.
Chilean copper-mining company Antofagasta produced 370,000 tonnes of copper in 2016, a decrease from 2015âs total of 370,000 tonnes. In the first half of 2017, the company produced 346,300 tonnes of copper, a 7.1-percent increase over the same period in 2016.
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.