Native Copper: the Mineral that You Can't Confuse With any Others

     Copper is a metal on the Periodic Table of the Elements. Elements are considered minerals when they are found in pure form in nature. In such cases they are called “native elements.” Copper that is found in this manner is called “native copper.”
     Native copper is usually found as twelve-sided crystals (which are called dodecahedrons), but they can also form as eight-sided octahedrons, six-sided cubes, and twenty-four-sided tetrahexahedrons. A lot of the time these crystals grow in clusters, in a dendritic habit (which looks like the branches of a tree) as wires, or in the form of nuggets. Since copper is very soft its crystals can be distorted and squished. Native copper has been known to from as a coating on other rocks and if the rocks dissolve away the copper sometimes remains as a mold of the original rock. When these rocks are round the leftover copper is called “skull” copper. Native copper has also been found as inclusions in other minerals such as agates. Because of its bright "coppery" color, native copper cannot be confused with any other mineral.
     Until the twentieth century native copper served as the world’s main source of the metal. Today native copper is still used for this purpose, but most copper comes from ore stones now. People have used copper to make jewelry since ancient times and still use it to make things like broaches, rings, earrings, and bracelets today. Copper is very important in industry; in fact iron and aluminum are the only metals that are more widely used than copper! Copper is used to make electrical wire as well as plumbing pipes and is also used to make alloys such as brass and bronze. Copper is also used to make coins in many countries including the United States.
     One of the most famous sources of native copper is Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where it has been collected for about 4,000 years. Other sources include: Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Norway, Cuba, China, Zaire, Canada’s Yukon Territory, and the American states of Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Missouri, and Utah.
      Native copper belongs to a rare category of minerals. Of the 4,400 or so different minerals out there only about 20 of them are native elements. That much being said I’m sure glad to have some native copper in my collection!