Mine lifespan by selected commodities

For a copper mine, the extraction period or lifespan is generally expected to be somewhere between 5 to 70 years. Other mines, such as diamond mines or nickel mines, have a significantly shorter duration of extraction with some 27 and 22 years, respectively.

Duration of the extraction period of a mine by selected commodities

Commodity	Minimum	Maximum
Copper	5	70
Metallurgical coal	2	35
Platinum*	3	30
Diamonds	4	27
Thermal coal	8	26
Iron ore	6	24
Nickel	17	22

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Release date

March 2013

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Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

As of 2012

Supplementary notes

Mine life is the extraction period in years for scheduled ore reserves comprising proved and probable reserves only. For diamonds, life of mine (years) is reported and is based on scheduled probable reserves including indicated and some inferred resources considered for life of mine planning.
*The 30 years for platinum is due to 30 years being the maximum number of years for which a mining right is granted in South Africa.

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