Copper is one of the earliest metals discovered and utilized by mankind. Because of their good electric and thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance, high extension and fatigue strength, copper and its alloys, being an indispensable fundamental and strategic material in the national economy and the people's livelihood, and only next to steel and aluminum in the consumption of metallic materials, are widely used in the electric, machinery, chemical and national defence industries.

China is one of the countries, which used copper at an earlier time in the world and especially, made a brilliant achievement and outstanding contribution in the field of copper prospecting, mining and smelting in its ancient times.

For example, a number of copper, lead and zinc mines, which are operating even at the present time, were under exploitation in ancient times. According to the archaeological study, the 14C isotopic age determination of the ruins of ancient mining and smelting sites, discovered in the Tonglushan copper mine, Daye, Hubei, indicates that the tunnel mining began in the late Shang Dynasty over 3,000 years ago and lasted for as long as more than 1,000 years up to the Western Han Dynasty. There had been even a long history of open-cut mining before the tunneling. So far, seven opencut quarries, 18 underground workings and 252 pits, more than 8,000 m long in total, have been discovered in this mine. More than 10 wreckages of furnaces of the Spring and Autumn Period or even earlier have been excavated, with the chamber of a furnace being about 0.2 m2 and its height about 1.5 m, shaped just like the current blast furnace. The copper hydrometallurgy was originated in China, called as blue copper technique in ancient times. The output of copper produced by hydrometallurgy in the Northern Song Dynasty was a considerable figure, with the blue copper accounting for more than 15% of the then copper's total. Generally speaking, China attained a very high level in the fields of prospecting for, mining and smelting of copper in the ancient times.

In the last one hundred years some Chinese geologists, e.g. Ding Wenjiang (1917), Xie Jiarong (1929), Meng Xianmin (1937), Zhu Xiren (1935) and others, conducted geological survey and study of copper resources before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Because of limited funding, no substantial development of the copper deposits surveyed was made at that time.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, copper industry in China has developed rapidly. At first, an unprecedented large-scale geological survey was carried out with respect to the copper resources. In the initial stage of the 50s of the 20th century, in order to restore the production of mines and plants, left over by the Old China, as soon as possible, a prompt decision was taken to make an inventory of resources of copper mines in Northeast China and other areas, to provide geologic data necessary for restoring production. After that, detailed exploration activities were carried out in the areas of some large and medium-sized deposits, such as the Shouwangfen (Hebei), Zhongtiaoshan (Shanxi), Baiyinchang (Gansu), Tongguanshan (Anhui), Daye (Hubei), Dongchuan (Yunnan), Yimen (Yunnan), and Hongtoushan (Liaoning) deposits. In 60-70s, further geological prospectings for copper were also conducted in vast areas, such as the lower and middle Yangtze River valley, northeastern Jiangxi, northwestern Jiangxi, central Yunnan, western Guangdong and so on, and thus reliable geological results, as a basis for mine and plant designing, were provided for the development of the copper industry in China. As of 1985, over 100 large and medium-sized State-owned mines, 16 copper smelting plants and 64 electrolytic refining plants were built up, forming a complete copper industrial system (copper industry for short, the same below), including mining, dressing, smelting, and processing.