Copper Prices

Copper Prices & Information on Copper Investing

Copper Prices

Copper

Copper metal and 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 Cyprium, “metal of Cyprus”, later shortened to Cuprum. There may be insufficient reserves to sustain current high rates of copper consumption. Some countries, such as Chile and the United States, still have sizable reserves of the metal which are extracted through large open pit mines.

Copper compounds are known in several oxidation states, usually 2+, where they often impart blue or green colors to natural minerals such as turquoise and have been used historically widely as pigments. Copper as both metal and pigmented salt, has a significant presence in decorative art.

Peak copper is the point in time at which the maximum global copper production rate is reached. Since copper is a finite resource, at some point in the future new production from within the earth will diminish, and at some earlier time production will reach a maximum. When this will occur is a matter of dispute. Unlike fossil fuels, though, copper is scrapped and reused. Copper is among the most important industrial metals. Copper is used in electrical power cables, data cables, electrical equipment, automobile radiators, cooling and refrigeration tubing, heat exchangers, artillery shell casings, water pipes, and jewellery.

Copper has been in use at least 10,000 years, but more than 95% of all copper ever mined and smelted has been extracted since 1900. As India and China race to catch up with the West, the copper supply chain is becoming more strained,  leading to increased prices and an increase in copper theft.

North America alone mined 164 million metric tons of the reddish-brown metal.

Copper demand

Total world production is about 15 million tons per year. Copper demand is increasing by more than 575,000 tons annually and accelerating. Based on 2006 figures for per capita consumption, Tom Graedel and colleagues at Yale University calculate that by 2100 global demand for copper will outstrip the amount extractable from the ground^. China accounts for more than 22% of world copper demand.

For some purposes, other metals can substitute. For example, during a copper shortage in the 1970s, aluminum wire was substituted in many applications, bringing difficulties that persisted in later decades.

Copper supply

Globally, economic copper resources are being depleted with the equivalent production of three world-class copper mines being consumed annually. Environmental analyst Lester Brown has suggested copper might run out within 25 years based on what he considered a reasonable extrapolation of 2% growth per year.

New copper discoveries

56 new copper discoveries have been made during the past three decades. World discoveries of copper peaked in 1996.

Production

The chief producers of copper are Chile, United States, and Peru. 21 of the 28 largest copper mines in the world are not amenable to expansion. Many large copper mines will be exhausted between 2010 and 2015.

Copper production (thousands tonnes) 

Country	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Chile	4,580	4,860	5,410	5,320	5,560	5,700
United States	1,140	1,120	1,160	1,150	1,200	1,190
China	585	565	620	640	890	920
Peru	843	850	1,040	1,090	1,049	1,200
Poland	503	500	531	530	512	470
Australia	873	870	854	930	859	860
Mexico	330	330	406	420	338	400
Indonesia	1,160	1,170	840	1,050	816	780
Zambia	330	330	427	450	476	530
Russia	695	700	675	675	725	730
Kazakhstan	490	480	461	400	457	460
Canada	600	580	546	580	607	585
Other Countries	1,500	1,500	1,610	1,750	1,835	1,800
Total	13,600	13,900	14,600	14,900	15,100	15,600

Reserves

Copper is a fairly common element, with an estimated concentration of 50-70 ppm (0.005-0.007%) in Earth’s crust (1 kg of copper per 15-20 tons of crustal rock). If all this copper were extractable, that would provide humans with a nearly unexhaustible supply of the element (millions of years worth). Unfortunately, most of it can’t be extracted profitably at the current level of technology. At the present time, copper deposits are considered potentially profitable if they are located sufficiently close to the surface and they contain at least 0.3-0.5% of copper.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a current total reserve base of copper (economic and uneconomic) of 1.6 billion tonnes as of 2005, of which 950 million tonnes was considered economically recoverable.

Copper Reserves (thousands of tonnes) 

Country	Reserves	Percent	Reserve Base	Percent
Chile	150,000	30.61%	360,000	38.30%
United States	35,000	7.14%	70,000	7.45%
China	26,000	5.31%	63,000	6.70%
Peru	30,000	6.12%	60,000	6.38%
Poland	30,000	6.12%	48,000	5.11%
Australia	24,000	4.90%	43,000	4.57%
Mexico	30,000	6.12%	40,000	4.26%
Indonesia	35,000	7.14%	38,000	4.04%
Zambia	19,000	3.88%	35,000	3.72%
Russia	20,000	4.08%	30,000	3.19%
Kazakhstan	14,000	2.86%	20,000	2.13%
Canada	9,000	1.84%	20,000	2.13%
Other Countries	35,000	7.14%	110,000	11.70%
Total	490,000	100%	940,000	100%

Known conventional resources

Recycling

Each year in the USA, more copper is recovered and put back into service from recycled material than is derived from newly mined ore. Copper’s recycle value is so great that premium-grade scrap normally has at least 95% of the value of primary metal from newly mined ore.

Undiscovered conventional resources

Based on current discovery rates and existing geologic surveys, researchers have estimated that 1.6 billion metric tons of copper exist that could potentially be brought into use. This figure relies on the broadest possible definition of available copper as well as a lack of energy constraints and environmental concerns.

Unconventional resources

Deep-sea nodules are estimated to contain 700 million tonnes of copper.

Peak copper for individual nations

Chile

Chile is the world’s largest copper producer, and in 2007 accounted for 38% of the world’s primary copper production (see table above). One researcher has stated that Chile copper production may begin to decline irreversibly in 2008. However, this is contradicted by the Chilean Copper Commission, which has projected that, based on planned expansion projects, Chilean copper production will continue to increase through at least 2012.

Poland

Poland peaked in 1970 at 2 million tonnes per year.

Zaire

In Zaire, Copper production fell by 90% from 1976 (502,000 tons) to wartime 1993 (50,000 tons). Resumption depends on political factors.

Copper price

The price of copper struck its highest ever level on March 6, 2008 on the London Metal Exchange (LME), surging 5.8 percent over the previous trading day to 4.02 dollars per pound. The previous record was set on May 12, 2006 at 3.98 dollars per pound. The international copper price increased rapidly in early 2008, rising 23 percent in February 2008, then declined 40% before December 2008,^[16] and reached $1.30 by year’s end.

History

Copper Age

Copper, as native copper, is one of the few metals to occur naturally as an un-compounded mineral. Copper was known to some of the oldest civilizations on record, and has a history of use that is at least 10,000 years old. Some estimates of copper’s discovery place this event around 9000 BC in the Middle East.  A copper pendant was found in what is now northern Iraq that dates to 8700 BC. It is probable that gold and meteoritic iron were the only metals used by humans before copper. By 5000 BC, there are signs of copper smelting: the refining of copper from simple copper compounds such as malachite or azurite.

Copper smelting appears to have been developed independently in several parts of the world. In addition to its development in the Balkans by 5500 BC, it was developed in China before 2800 BC, in the Andes around 2000 BC, in Central America around 600 AD, and in West Africa around 900 AD.  Copper is found extensively in the Indus Valley Civilization by the 3rd millennium BC. In Europe, Ötzi the Iceman, a well-preserved male dated to 3300–3200 BC, was found with an axe with a copper head 99.7% pure. High levels of arsenic in his hair suggest he was involved in copper smelting. Over the course of centuries, experience with copper has assisted the development of other metals; for example, knowledge of copper smelting led to the discovery of iron smelting.

Bronze Age

Alloying of copper with zinc or tin to make brass or bronze was practiced soon after the discovery of copper itself. There exist copper and bronze artifacts from Sumerian cities that date to 3000 BC, and Egyptian artifacts of copper and copper-tin alloys nearly as old. In one pyramid, a copper plumbing system was found that is 5000 years old. The Egyptians found that adding a small amount of tin made the metal easier to cast, so copper-tin (bronze) alloys were found in Egypt almost as soon as copper was found. Very important sources of copper in the Levant were located in Timna valley (Negev, now in southern Israel) and Faynan (biblical Punon, Jordan).

By 2000 BC, Europe was using bronze. The use of bronze became so widespread in Europe approximately from 2500 BC to 600 BC that it has been named the Bronze Age. The transitional period in certain regions between the preceding Neolithic period and the Bronze Age is termed the Chalcolithic (“copper-stone”), with some high-purity copper tools being used alongside stone tools. Brass (copper-zinc alloy) was known to the Greeks, but only became a significant supplement to bronze during the Roman empire.

During the Bronze Age, one copper mine at Great Orme in North Wales, extended for a depth of 70 meters. At Alderley Edge in Cheshire, carbon dates have established mining at around 2280 to 1890 BC (at 95% probability).

Antiquity and Middle Ages

In Greek the metal was known by the name chalkos (χαλκός). Copper was a very important resource for the Romans, Greeks and other ancient peoples. In Roman times, it became known as aes Cyprium (aes being the generic Latin term for copper alloys such as bronze and other metals, and Cyprium because so much of it was mined in Cyprus). From this, the phrase was simplified to cuprum, hence the English copper. Copper was associated with the goddess Aphrodite/Venus in mythology and alchemy, owing to its lustrous beauty, its ancient use in producing mirrors, and its association with Cyprus, which was sacred to the goddess. In astrology, alchemy the seven heavenly bodies known to the ancients were associated with seven metals also known in antiquity, and Venus was assigned to copper.

Britain’s first use of brass occurred around the 3rd – 2nd century B.C. In North America, copper mining began with marginal workings by Native Americans. Native copper is known to have been extracted from sites on Isle Royale with primitive stone tools between 800 and 1600.

Copper metallurgy was flourishing in South America, particularly in Peru around the beginning of the first millennium AD. Copper technology proceeded at a much slower rate on other continents. Africa’s major location for copper reserves is Zambia. Copper burial ornamentals dated from the 15th century have been uncovered, but the metal’s commercial production did not start until the early 1900s. Australian copper artifacts exist, but they appear only after the arrival of the Europeans; the aboriginal culture apparently did not develop their own metallurgical abilities.

Crucial in the metallurgical and technological worlds, copper has also played an important cultural role, particularly in currency. Romans in the 6th through 3rd centuries B.C. used copper lumps as money. At first, just the copper itself was valued, but gradually the shape and look of the copper became more important. Julius Caesar had his own coins, made from a copper-zinc alloy, while Octavianus Augustus Caesar’s coins were made from Cu-Pb-Sn alloys.

Modern period

Throughout history, copper’s use in art has extended far beyond currency. Vannoccio Biringuccio, Giorgio Vasari and Benvenuto Cellini are three Renaissance sculptors from the mid 1500s, notable for their work with bronze. From about 1560 to about 1775, thin sheets of copper were commonly used as a canvas for paintings. Silver plated copper was used in the pre-photograph known as the daguerreotype. The Statue of Liberty, dedicated on October 28, 1886, was constructed of copper thought to have come from French-owned mines in Norway.

Plating was a technology that began started in the mid 1600s in some areas. One common use for copper plating, widespread in the 1700s, was the sheathing of ships’ hulls. Copper sheathing could be used to protect wooden hulled ships from algae, and from the shipworm “Teredo navalis”, a saltwater clam. The ships of Christopher Columbus were among the earliest to have this protection. The Norddeutsche Affinerie in Hamburg was the first modern electroplating plant starting its production in 1876.

In 1801 Paul Revere established America’s first copper rolling mill in Canton, Massachusetts. In the early 1800s, it was discovered that copper wire could be used as a conductor, but it wasn’t until 1990 that copper, in oxide form, was discovered for use as a superconducting material. The German scientist Gottfried Osann invented powder metallurgy of copper in 1830 while determining the metal’s atomic weight. Around then it was also discovered that the amount and type of alloying element (e.g. tin) would affect the tones of bells, allowing for a variety of rich sounds, leading to bell casting, another common use for copper and its alloys.

Flash smelting, was developed by Outokumpu in Finland and first applied at the Harjavalta plant in 1949. The process makes smelting more energy efficient and is today used for 50% of the world’s primary copper production.

Copper has been pivotal in the economic and sociological worlds, notably disputes involving copper mines. The 1906 Cananea Strike in Mexico dealt with issues of work organization. The Teniente copper mine (1904-1951) raised political issues about capitalism and class structure. Japan’s largest copper mine, the Ashio mine, was the site of a riot in 1907. The Arizona miners’ strike of 1938 dealt with American labor issues including the “right to strike”.

Mechanical properties

Copper is easily worked, being both ductile and malleable. The ease with which it can be drawn into wire makes it useful for electrical work in addition to its excellent electrical properties. Copper can be machined, although it is usually necessary to use an alloy for intricate parts, such as threaded components, to get really good machinability characteristics. Good thermal conduction makes it useful for heatsinks and in heat exchangers. Copper has good corrosion resistance, but not as good as gold. It has excellent brazing and soldering properties and can also be welded, although best results are obtained with gas metal arc welding.

Copper is normally supplied, as with nearly all metals for industrial and commercial use, in a fine grained polycrystalline form. Polycrystalline metals have greater strength than monocrystalline forms, and the difference is greater for smaller grain (crystal) sizes. The reason is due to the inability of stress dislocations in the crystal structure to cross the grain boundaries.

Electrical properties

Copper has the second highest electrical conductivity of any element, just after silver. This high value is due to virtually all the valence electrons (one per atom) taking part in conduction. The resulting free electrons in the copper amount to a huge charge density of 13.6×10⁹ C/m³. This high charge density is responsible for the rather slow drift velocity of currents in copper cable (drift velocity may be calculated as the ratio of current density to charge density). For instance, at a current density of 5×10⁶ A/m² (typically, the maximum current density present in household wiring and grid distribution) the drift velocity is just a little over ⅓ mm/s.

Production

Output

Most copper ore is mined or extracted as copper sulfides from large open pit mines in porphyry copper deposits that contain 0.4 to 1.0 percent copper. Examples include: Chuquicamata in Chile and El Chino Mine in New Mexico. The average abundance of copper found within crustal rocks is approximately 68 ppm by mass, and 22 ppm by atoms. In 2005, Chile was the top mine producer of copper with at least one-third world share followed by the USA, Indonesia and Peru, reports the British Geological Survey.

Copper output 2005.

Reserves

Copper has been in use at least 10,000 years, but more than 95 percent of all copper ever mined and smelted has been extracted since 1900. As with many natural resources, total amount of copper on Earth is vast (around 10¹⁴ tons just in the top kilometer of Earth’s crust, or about 5 million years worth at the current rate of extraction). However, only a tiny fraction of these reserves is economically viable, given present-day prices and technologies. Various estimates of existing copper reserves available for mining vary from 25 years to 60 years, depending on core assumptions such as the growth rate.

Copper is a finite resource, but, unlike oil, it is not destroyed and therefore can be recycled. Recycling is a major source of copper in the modern world.

As consumption in India and China increases, copper supplies are becoming scarcer. The copper price has quintupled from the 60-year low in 1999, rising from US$0.60 per pound (US$1.32/kg) in June 1999 to US$3.75 per pound (US$8.27/kg) in May 2006, where it dropped to US$2.40 per pound (US$5.29/kg) in February 2007 then rebounded to US$3.50 per pound (US$7.71/kg = £3.89 = €5.00) in April 2007. By early February 2009, however, weakening global demand and a steep fall in commodity prices since the previous year’s highs had left copper prices at US$1.51 per pound.

The Intergovernmental Council of Copper Exporting Countries (CIPEC), defunct since 1992, once tried to play a similar role for copper as OPEC does for oil, but never achieved the same influence, not least because the second-largest producer, the United States, was never a member. Formed in 1967, its principal members were Chile, Peru, Zaire, and Zambia.

Methods

Applications

Copper is malleable and ductile and is a good conductor of both heat and electricity.

The purity of copper is expressed as 4N for 99.99% pure or 7N for 99.99999% pure. The numeral gives the number of nines after the decimal point when expressed as a decimal (e.g. 4N means 0.9999, or 99.99%). Copper is often too soft for its applications, so it is incorporated in numerous alloys. For example, brass is a copper-zinc alloy, and bronze is a copper-tin alloy.

It is used extensively, in products such as:

Piping

• including water supply.
• used extensively in refrigeration and air conditioning equipment because of its ease of fabrication and soldering, as well as high conductivity to heat.

Electrical applications

• Copper wire.
• Oxygen-free copper.
• Electromagnets.
• Printed circuit boards.
• Lead free solder, alloyed with tin.
• Electrical machines, especially electromagnetic motors, generators and transformers.
• Electrical relays, electrical busbars and electrical switches.
• Vacuum tubes, cathode ray tubes, and the magnetrons in microwave ovens.
• Wave guides for microwave radiation.
• Integrated circuits, increasingly replacing aluminium because of its superior electrical conductivity.
• As a material in the manufacture of computer heat sinks, as a result of its superior heat dissipation capacity to aluminium.

Architecture and industry

• Copper has been used as water-proof roofing material since ancient times, giving many old buildings their greenish roofs and domes. Initially copper oxide forms, replaced by cuprous and cupric sulfide, and finally by copper carbonate. The final carbonate patina (termed verdigris) is highly resistant to corrosion.
• Statuary: The Statue of Liberty, for example, contains 179,220 pounds (81.3 tonnes) of copper.
• Alloyed with nickel, e.g. cupronickel and Monel, used as corrosive resistant materials in shipbuilding.
• Watt’s steam engine firebox due to superior heat dissipation.
• Copper compounds in liquid form are used as a wood preservative, particularly in treating original portion of structures during restoration of damage due to dry rot.
• Copper wires may be placed over non-conductive roofing materials to discourage the growth of moss. (Zinc may also be used for this purpose.)

• Copper is used to prevent a building being directly struck by lightning. High above the roof, copper spikes (lightning rods) are connected to a very thick copper cable which leads to a large metal plate underneath the ground. The voltage is dispersed throughout the ground harmlessly, instead of destroying the main structure^.

Household products

• Copper plumbing fittings and compression tubes.
• Doorknobs and other fixtures in houses.
• Roofing, guttering, and rainspouts on buildings.
• In cookware, such as frying pans.
• Some older flatware: (knives, forks, spoons) contains some copper if made from Electroplated Nickel silver (EPNS).
• Sterling silver, if it is to be used in dinnerware, must contain a few percent copper.
• Copper water heating cylinders
• Copper Range Hoods
• Copper Bath Tubs
• Copper Counters
• Copper Sinks
• Copper slug tape

Coinage

• As a component of coins, often as cupronickel alloy, or some form of brass or bronze.
• Coins in the following countries all contain copper: European Union (Euro), United States, United Kingdom (sterling), Australia and New Zealand.
• U.S. Nickels are 75.0% copper by weight and only 25.0% nickel.

Biomedical applications

• As a biostatic surface in hospitals, and to line parts of ships to protect against barnacles and mussels, originally used pure, but superseded by Muntz metal. Bacteria will not grow on a copper surface because it is biostatic. Copper doorknobs are used by hospitals to reduce the transfer of disease, and Legionnaires’ disease is suppressed by copper tubing in air-conditioning systems.
• Copper(II) sulfate is used as a fungicide and as algae control in domestic lakes and ponds. It is used in gardening powders and sprays to kill mildew.
• Copper-62-PTSM, a complex containing radioactive copper-62, is used as a positron emission tomography radiotracer for heart blood flow measurements.
• Copper-64 can be used as a positron emission tomography radiotracer for medical imaging. When complexed with a chelate it can be used to treat cancer through radiation therapy.

Chemical applications

• Compounds, such as Fehling’s solution, have applications in chemistry.
• As a component in ceramic glazes, and to color glass.

Other

• Musical instruments, especially brass instruments and timpani.
• Class D fire extinguisher, used in powder form to extinguish lithium fires by covering the burning metal and performing similar to a heat sink.
• Textile fibers to create antimicrobial protective fabrics.
• Weaponry:
  • Small arms ammunition commonly uses copper as a jacketing material around the bullet core.
  • Copper is also commonly used as a case material, in the form of brass.
  • Copper is used as a liner in shaped-charge armor-piercing warheads.
• Copper is frequently used in electroplating, usually as a base for other metals such as Nickel.

Alloys

Numerous copper alloys exist, many with important historical and contemporary uses. Speculum metal and bronze are alloys of copper and tin. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Monel metal, also called cupronickel, is an alloy of copper and nickel. While the metal “bronze” usually refers to copper-tin alloys, it also is a generic term for any alloy of copper, such as aluminium bronze, silicon bronze, and manganese bronze. Copper is one of the most important constituents of carat silver and gold alloys and carat solders used in the jewelry industry, modifying the color, hardness and melting point of the resulting alloys.

Source: Wikipedia.