PROVISIONALLY PRICED SALES: (Details)	Mar. 31, 2014 lb
Copper \| April and May 2014
PROVISIONALLY PRICED SALES:
Nonmonetary notional amount of commodity (in million lbs.)	73,100,000
Provisional price	3.03
Molybdenum \| April to June 2014
PROVISIONALLY PRICED SALES:
Nonmonetary notional amount of commodity (in million lbs.)	8,000,000
Provisional price	10.80

Aggregate notional amount of provisionally priced sales agreements with notional amounts expressed in nonmonetary units.

No definition available.

Name:	scco_NonmonetaryNotionalAmountOfProvisionallyPricedSalesAgreements
Namespace Prefix:	scco_
Data Type:	num:massItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant