Copper Facts

Copper is the most versatile and durable of all metals and has been called "man’s eternal metal". Copper is malleable, ductile and long lasting. Copper is a better conductor of heat and electricity than any other metal except silver. Without copper, there might never have been an electric light or space flight. This miraculous mineral and its alloys are at the heart of all technology, from telecommunications to transportation.

• Copper is everywhere – take a minute and look around you. It is in what you see and often in what you don’t see. It’s behind the walls of your
  home, in electrical and telephone wiring. It’s in computers, refrigerators, microwaves and automobiles.
  


• The average home today contains about 400 pounds of copper for electrical wiring, water pipes and appliances, while the automobile you drive
  contains about 50 pounds. Each child born today in America will need 1500 pounds of copper in the course of his or her lifetime to enjoy our
  current standard of living.
  
  
• Did you know? – When zinc is alloyed with copper, brass is made. And when tin is alloyed with copper, bronze is made.
  
  
• Copper Fact – The Statue of Liberty contains 179,000 pounds of copper. After one hundred years of enduring biting sea winds, driving rains and the
  beating sun, the copper skin of the Statue of Liberty not only has grown more beautiful, it has remained virtually intact. The weathering and
  oxidation of the copper skin has amounted to just .005 of an inch in a century.
  


• Did you know? – Today’s U.S. coins, dimes, quarters and half dollars have a solid copper core and an outer layer of a copper-nickel alloy.
  


• Copper’s Future – One of copper’s major advantages is that it is recyclable. In North America alone, approximately one half of the copper consumed
  annually comes from recycled material. Copper’s recycle value is so great that premium-grade scrap has at least 95% of the value of primary copper
  from newly mined ore.