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.
Freeport-McMoRan is engaged in mineral exploration and development, mining and milling of copper, gold, and silver in Indonesia, and the smelting and refining of copper concentrates in Spain and Indonesia. They are the world's lowest-cost copper producer and one of the world's largest producers of copper and gold. FCX's operations are conducted through its subsidiaries, P.T. Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI), P.T. IRJA Eastern Minerals Corporation (Eastern Mining) and through Atlantic Copper, S.A. (Atlantic).