COPPER (C U ) MADDIE SELECKY AND COLBY SELLAND

CHARACTERISTICS Color is copper colored with weathered specimens tarnished green. Class: Elements Cleavage is absent. Fracture is jagged. Streak is reddish copper color. Hardness is Specific Gravity is 8.9+ (above average for metallic) Other Characteristics: ductile, malleable and sectile, meaning it can be pounded into other shapes, stretched into a wire and cut into slices.

ELEMENTS IN THE MINERAL Copper is found in an uncombined state.

LOCATION Notable Occurrences include Michigan and Arizona, USA; Germany; Russia and Australia.

MINING AND PROCESSING Copper ore is extracted using two basic methods of mining - open pit or underground mining. The first step in processing the ore removed from the mine is to break the large rocks of ore into smaller pieces. This is accomplished by a variety of subsequent processing steps. The next step in processing is called beneficiation. This is the first step in concentrating the copper into a more useable form. Copper from the smelter is melted and cast as anodes, the solution from the solvent extraction process moves to a plating operation. The final step in processing sulfide ore copper from the smelter is to make high purity copper cathodes.

VALUE 1.15 million tons was valued at about $9 billion in 2013.

THE PRINCIPLE USES Native copper has been mined for centuries and now is all but depleted as an economically viable ore. Other copper minerals are far more economical to mine and purify into metallic copper that is used for wiring, electrical components, pennies and other coins, tubing and many other applications.

CRYSTAL FORM Crystal System is isometric; 4/m bar 3 2/m Crystal Habits include massive, wires and arborescent or branching forms as the most common, whole individual crystals are extremely rare but when present are usually cubes and octahedrons. Occasionally, massive forms will show some recognizable crystal faces on outer surfaces.

GEMSTONES Copper is not a gemstone. The difference between gemstones and the rest of the minerals is that gemstones are crystalline forms of minerals. If you look at the microscopic view of a gemstone's or any crystal's structure, you will see that it is a unique, organized structure. Not all minerals have this structure.

OUR BIRTHSTONES Maddie’s Birthstone is Turquiose and the color is Sky Blue. Colby’s Birthstone is Aquamarine or Bloodstone and the color is Pale Blue.