Copper

Copper has properties that make it useful for electrical wiring and plumbing:

• a good conductor of electricity and heat
• it is bendable and but hard enough to be used as pipes or tanks
• it does not react with

Copper is usually extracted from its ores by heating it with Carbon, but then further purified using electricity. Using electricity to separate compounds is known as . Copper can be also extracted from solutions containing copper compounds by electrolysis. Electrolysis on a industrial scale requires huge amounts of energy - which inevitably means some form of pollution.

The supply of copper-rich ores is and fast running out. New ways of extracting copper from low-grade ores are currently being researched. This research will hopefully limit the environmental impact of traditional mining as copper-poor ores require far more rock to excavated to produce the same amount of copper.

New methods of extracting copper from low-grade ores or waste material include the soaking of the material in water so that the copper compounds will leach out of the rock into the water and then using bacteria, fungi or plants to break down the compounds giving pure copper.

The process using plants is called . The process using bacteria is called .