Copper: From Ancient Buildings to Your Home

Copper was one of the first metals used in the development of civilization and continues to be one of the most important and widely applied.

The metal has played a significant role in mankind’s history for some 10,000 years, with early evidence of its use in Greece, Egypt, China and Iraq.  In ancient times, it was often used as a waterproofing material in roofs, giving old buildings their greenish colored domes and it protects and adorns countless ancient monuments and statues.

Today, it is still found on statues – the Statue of Liberty contains 81 tons of copper.  And it’s used architecturally; in fact it clads the roof of the Minneapolis City Hall.

However, due to unique characteristics of high malleability, ductility, and electrical and thermal conductivity, it is most often found in homes and building.  Copper pipe and tube are the ideal material for plumbing and electrical applications.  Nearly half of the US consumption of copper goes into new buildings, with two-thirds of that used in residential construction.  The average single family home can contain 440 pounds of copper or more.

Electric and electronic products account for the next largest demand for copper.  For power generation and transmission, motors and transformers, and printed circuit boards in computers, copper is a preferred material.  In computers, it’s also used for heat sinks, due to its superior heat dissipation capacity; and it forms the backbone of telecommunication systems, as well. 

In house wares, copper is common in cookware, and most flatware contains some copper.  It’s also used in doorknobs, frequently in hospitals, since it is biostatic, meaning it won’t support bacterial growth.  For that reason it’s used in air-conditioning systems to suppress the occurrence of Legionnaire’s disease. 

Alloyed with nickel or zinc (as brass), copper is found in everything from corrosion-resistant shipbuilding and marine materials to coinage (although, ironically, U.S. nickels are 75% copper).

The U.S. accounts for over 20% of the world’s copper consumption and imports about 40% of it – mainly from South America, where Chile is the world’s top mine producer of copper.  (Chile, Peru, Zaire and Zambia at one time tried to establish an OPEC-like organization to control copper supply and pricing.)  Current worldwide production is insufficient to meet demand and the U.S. has no government stockpile.  Prices of copper have quintupled since 1999.  But, copper is highly recyclable and byproducts from manufacturing and obsolete products contribute significantly to the supply.

Annually the US consumes about 2.3 million metric tonnes of copper and the Birch Lake Project would generate approximately 74 million pounds of new copper each year over the life of the mines.