Overview

Copper is metallic resource that is found throughout the world with the United States being a major supplier along with Canada, Chile, Peru and Zambia. Copper, when it was first mined was anywhere from 35-88% pure. Such ores are now collector's items at gem and mineral shows. Today, copper is produced from ore containing less than 1% copper (per ton of ore rock).

Some Copper-containing minerals are:

Chalcocite . . . . . . . . . . Cu2S
Chalcopyrite . . . . . . . . . CuFeS2
Malachite. . . . . . . . . . . Cu2CO3(OH)2
Azurite. . . . . . . . . . . . Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2

One of the ways of extracting metallic ions from ore is first to get that ion dissolved in a water solution (such as gold in cyanide solution) and then by placing that solution in contact with a metal or material that is more reactive than the metal ion in solution. In this way, the more reactive metal goes into solution and the dissolved metal ion precipitates out of solution. The reactivity of metals has been known for some time and is used in the hydrometallurgy process.

Metal Activity Series | Standards

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Please direct questions to: Tom Lugaski
Last Modified May 20, 1997
Copyright University of Nevada, Reno 1996