Page 73 - The Periodic Table Book
P. 73

Copper is a very good conductor of electricity, but not the    copper wiring is running unseen in power supplies, buildings,
           best; silver is better. However, copper is more widely used   and electronics. Copper is now the most common electrical
           because it is much cheaper to find and purify. Each year,   metal, but it has a long history. It was the first element to be
           about 15 million tonnes of pure copper is produced, and   refined from ores in large amounts about 7,000 years ago in
           more than half of it is used to make electrical components,   the region that is now Iraq. Today, Bingham Canyon in Utah,
           such as this mesh. Today, more than a billion kilometres of   USA, is the world’s largest copper mine.





   070-071_Copper_DPS.indd   71                                                                                  02/12/16   6:52 pm
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