Copper is tough, malleable and highly conductive, making it one of the world's most important metals.
Copper is essential to all living things and plays an important role in modern technology. It has served humanity for 7,000 years, yet is still a modern metal. Electric power and electronics, the basis of today's society, are founded on the excellent ability of copper to conduct electricity. Nearly half of all copper is used for this purpose. Other important areas of consumption are the building, workshop and processing industry. The primary use for copper within the car industry is for car radiators and electronics. Shipbuilding, the offshore industry and desalination plants are other copper markets. There is also a very useful alloy of copper and zinc that is brass.
In addition, Copper is a very big recycling metal. Nearly 90 per cent of the available scrap is recycled.
Pure copper oxidises very slowly. Copper cylinders are therefore used to store spent nuclear fuel. A copper cylinder with 10 cm thick walls will last for one million years before oxidising through.
Copper is shipped to fabricators mainly as cathode, wire rod, billet, cake (slab), or ingot. Through extrusion, drawing, rolling, forging, melting, electrolysis, or atomization, fabricators can form wire, rod, tube, sheet, plate, strip, castings, powder, and other shapes. These copper and copper-alloys are then shipped to manufacturing plants that make products to meet society's needs.