Although native copper is somewhat rare, large amounts are found by the Great Lakes and was mined by ancient American cultures. Copper is usually found in other forms, mixed with sulfur, or in an some other oxidized form. Copper is also quite useful for its ability to form different alloys and ions.Click to see full answer. Hereof, how common is copper?Copper is a 100 percent recyclable metal. It’s an abundant metal in Earth’s crust, present at concentrations of 50 parts per million. Copper readily forms simple binary compounds, which are chemical compounds consisting of only two elements.Secondly, where is the most copper found in the world? Chile, the world’s largest copper producing country, hosts six of the ten largest copper mines in the world, while the remaining four are located in Peru, Mexico and Indonesia. Mining-technology.com profiles the ten biggest copper mines in the world, based on contained reserves. Accordingly, how much copper is left in the world? Known worldwide copper resources are estimated at nearly 5.8 trillion pounds of which only about 0.7 trillion pounds (12%) have been mined throughout history and nearly all of that is still in circulation, because copper’s recycling rate is higher than that of any other engineering metal.Where is copper found and why?Copper found in the free metallic state in nature is called “native copper.” It is found throughout the world as a primary mineral in basaltic lavas. The greatest known deposit of copper is in porphyries formed by volcanic activity in the Chile’s Andean Mountains.
