Just get mods if you are playing alone. You could take a few approaches. You could up the yields from copper deposits or furnaces. You could lower the carry weight of ores and ingots. You could make the bronze recipe less expensive.

I haven't done any of those myself though. I do the same as a lot of other people by just getting bronze tools and heading to the swamp in troll set. Copper mining is by far the most brainless part of of the game. It is so painfully uneventful.