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.
Southern Copper Corporation is an American-based copper producer with major operations in Mexico and Peru. Grupo Mexico currently owns 75.1% of the company, which produced 487 thousand metric tons of copper in 2010. Major assets include the Cuajone and Toquepala mines in Peru and the Cananea mine in Mexico.
(Rio Tinto: 100 per cent). Kennecott Utah Copper (KUC) operates the Bingham Canyon mine, Copperton concentrator and Garfield smelter and refinery complex, near Salt Lake City, US. KUC is a polymetallic mine, producing copper, gold, molybdenum and silver.As the second largest copper producer in the US, KUC supplies more than 13 per cent of the nation's annual refined copper requirements and it employs approximately 1,800 people.s the second largest copper producer in the US, KUC supplies more than 13 per cent of the nation's annual refined copper requirements and it employs approximately 1,800 people.