Prey-Predator Long-Term Modeling of Copper Reserves, Production, Recycling, Price, and Cost of Production.

The dynamics of copper production is modeled with a prey-predator approach linking the evolution of reserves to that of industrial wealth. Our model differs from earlier approaches in that it does not require a priori knowledge of the initial stock of resources. The model variables and a long-term reference price are estimated from historical data, taking into account the combined effects on price and reserve of technological improvements and changes in ore grade.