History of Copper Timeline

Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes used native copper as far back as approximately 7500 BC. Non-smelted native copper production in the Old Copper Complex is dated to about 6500–3000 BC.

A copper spearpoint found in Wisconsin has been dated to about 6500 BC, providing early evidence of copper working in North America.

Prehistoric lead pollution evidence from Michigan lakes suggests that people in the region began mining copper around 6000 BC.

Carbon dating establishes copper mining at Alderley Edge in Cheshire, England, between approximately 2280 and 1890 BC.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the first mines at Agadez date to approximately 2000 BC. Copper was regarded as more precious and prestigious than gold or silver for much of the period through the early 1800s.

A copper mask found in the Argentinian Andes and dated to 1000 BC is the oldest known copper artifact discovered in the Andes.

Copper smelting was probably discovered in Central America around 600 AD.

Native copper was extracted from sites on Isle Royale using primitive stone tools between approximately 800 and 1600 AD.

Copper smelting probably developed in West Africa during about the ninth or tenth century AD.

Several exquisite copper plates, known as Mississippian copper plates, were produced in the Cahokia region between approximately 1000 and 1300 AD.

Copper production in the Andes continued through conquests by the Chimor and Inca cultures and ended with the Spanish conquest in 1532.

At Cahokia, near modern-day Missouri, copper from Great Lakes nuggets was worked through repeated hammering and annealing between about 1000 and 1300 AD.

Copper-tin bronzes containing various additional metals have been used to create bells for centuries. Alloy composition directly affects a bell's tone and mechanical characteristics.

For more than two centuries, copper paint has been used on boat hulls to control the growth of plants and shellfish.

Before cupronickel was widely adopted, copper-silver alloys were used for coins. The United States used 90% silver and 10% copper until 1965, then used 40% silver and 60% copper for half dollars from 1965 to 1970.

A typical automobile contained 20–30 kilograms of copper in 2001. Copper and copper-alloy content in internal-combustion vehicles fell to 16.8 kilograms by 2014, then rose to 24.5 kilograms by 2023.

The US Institute of Medicine updated estimated average requirements and recommended dietary allowances for copper in 2001.

Copper-zinc alloy handrails were installed in some 30 stations of Santiago's subway system between 2011 and 2014. Antimicrobial copper products are also being installed in healthcare facilities in several countries.

In 2019, the US Daily Value for copper was revised to 0.9 milligrams, bringing it into agreement with the recommended dietary allowance.

Copper prices reached a peak in 2022 before unexpectedly falling.

As of 2023, recycled copper supplied approximately one-third of global copper demand.

Global copper production in 2024 was estimated at approximately 22.8–22.9 million metric tons.

Polymetallic nodules on the Pacific Ocean floor, approximately 3,000–6,500 meters below sea level, are being researched as an alternative source of copper.

Although copper has been used for at least 10,000 years, more than 95% of all copper ever mined and smelted has been extracted since 1900. The top kilometer of Earth's crust contains around 10¹⁴ tons, equivalent to roughly five million years of extraction at current rates.

By May 2024, the London Metal Exchange copper price reached an all-time high above $11,000 per tonne.

Global demand for copper is projected to increase by 50% by 2040.

Romans in the sixth through third centuries BC used lumps of copper as money.

The Great Copper Mountain at Falun, Sweden, operated from the tenth century until 1992.

The English word copper derives from Old English coper, a form adopted in the twelfth century.

The Great Copper Mountain supplied approximately two-thirds of Europe's copper consumption in the seventeenth century and helped finance many Swedish wars.

Copper plating and copper sheathing became widely used to protect underwater ship hulls, in a technique pioneered by the British Admiralty during the eighteenth century.

The largest mass of elemental copper ever discovered weighed 420 tonnes. It was found in 1857 on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula.

The Norddeutsche Affinerie in Hamburg began production in 1876 and became the first modern electroplating plant.

Early in the twentieth century, Arizona ranked first among US copper-producing regions, followed by Montana, Utah, and Michigan.

Outokumpu developed flash smelting in Finland, first applying it at Harjavalta in 1949. The energy-efficient process now accounts for about half of global primary copper production.

Chile, Peru, Zaire, and Zambia formed CIPEC in 1967 to coordinate the copper market. It never matched OPEC's influence and was dissolved in 1988.

According to the British Geological Survey, Chile was the leading copper producer in 2005, with at least one-third of world production, followed by the United States, Indonesia, and Peru.

China became the world's largest importer of copper in 2008.

Chile, the world's largest copper producer, supplied the United States with 70% of its refined copper and alloy imports through 2024.