Copper has a long history in human civilization. The period at the beginning of Bronze Age at around 3500 BC is known as the Copper-Stone Age or Chalcolithic Age which marks the beginning of copper deployment in tool making processes by human ancestors. Early uses of copper include ornaments, jewelries, coins as well as in the making of alloys such as brass and bronze. The country of Cyprus is named from the Latin word for copper, cyprium, because of its abundant copper mines during the time of the Roman Empire.

Copper has similar attributes to gold and silver. It is highly malleable and ductile, which means it can be easily stretched into wires or be hammered and rolled into sheets. In addition, copper is well known for its excellent electrical conductivity properties. The most predominant application of copper is in the manufacturing of electrical wires. Other frequent uses of copper include lighting rods, plumbing and machinery equipments.

Copper is one the two metal elements (the other being aluminum) that can be recycled completely without any loss in quality. As a result, copper recycling is popular and copper is the third most recycled metal element behind iron and aluminum. It is estimated that about 80% of copper ever mined on Earth is still in use today.

Although the Earth contains vast quantities of copper reserves, not all of them are economically feasible to be mined under present day technology and market price. The long term sustainability of copper supply is currently hotly debated issue often discussed under the topic of Peak Copper.

Major copper producing countries in the world are Chile, United States, Peru, China, Australia, Indonesia, Russia, Canada, Zambia and Poland.