Wednesday, March 6, 2013

March 2013 Metal of the Month




Copper
Copper Crystal

Copper Ore

Copper Ore
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; a freshly exposed surface has a reddish-orange color. It is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, a building material, and a constituent of various metal alloys.
The metal and its alloys have been used for thousands of years.

 In the Roman era, copper was principally mined on Cyprus, hence the origin of the name of the metal as сyprium or metal of Cyprus. It was later shortened to сuprum. Its compounds are commonly encountered as copper salts, which often impart blue or green colors to minerals such as azurite and turquoise and have been widely used historically as pigments. Architectural structures built with copper corrode to give a green verdigris or patina. Decorative art prominently features copper both by itself and as part of pigments.
Copper Crystal
Copper Crystal

Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the respiratory enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. Copper is present in the Earth's crust at a concentration of about 50 parts per million where it occurs as native copper or in minerals such as the copper sulfides chalcopyrite and chalcocite, copper carbonates azurite and malachite and the copper oxide mineral cuprite. The largest mass of elemental copper discovered weighed 420 tons and was found in 1857 on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan.
Copper Nugget