Tracing copper flows in Pakistan: A substance flow analysis approach

Copper is essential to the global economy and plays a significant role in the global energy transition towards low carbon development. This study investigates copper metabolism in Pakistan from 2005 to 2020 by using a substance flow analysis (SFA) method so that valuable insights can be obtained for supporting sustainable copper utilization in Pakistan where the mineral sector contributes greatly to the national development. Our results show that over 75.83% of the mined copper has been consumed domestically, and a large amount of copper ores has been imported to support domestic consumption. The recovery efficiency of copper was 57.37%, 89.90%, 71.96%, 68.12%, and 75.84% in the stages of mining, smelting, fabrication, manufacturing, and local use, respectively. The cumulative copper loss reached 90.34 kt during this study period, indicating that it is urgent to improve copper recycling. In summary, these findings provide valuable implications to those policy-makers so that they can prepare appropriate copper management policies to improve the overall copper resource efficiency.