Copper is one of the earliest metals discovered by humans and the first metal that humans began to use. Copper beads made of natural copper unearthed by archaeologists in northern Iraq are estimated to be more than 10,000 years old.
In our country, the Xia Dynasty 4,000 years ago began to use red copper, which is natural copper hammered out. In 1957 and 1959, nearly 20 pieces of bronze wares were unearthed at the Huangniangniang Terrace site in Wuwei, Gansu Province. After analysis, the copper content in the bronze wares was as high as 99.63% to 99.87%, and they were all pure copper. As for pure copper, although mineable mineral deposits were relatively rare in ancient times, it was not difficult to extract from its ores. In the 13th century, the copper extraction method used by the copper mine in Falun, Sweden, was to bake the sulfide ore and then use water to extract it. After the copper sulfate formed is separated and flows across the surface of the iron filings, the copper will precipitate, and the thin layer formed can be easily separated. This was the source of great wealth in Falun, Sweden at that time.
In our country, the earliest method of extracting copper is to use natural copper compounds to conduct wet copper smelting. This is not only the origin of wet technology, but also an invention in the history of world chemistry. "Huainanzi·Wanbishu" of the Western Han Dynasty records: Zeng Qing obtained iron and turned it into copper. Zeng Qing is copper sulfate. The modern chemical formula for this method is: CuSO4+Fe=FeSO4+Cu. In addition, in 1933, during excavations in Yinxu, Anyang County, Henan Province, malachite weighing 18.8 kilograms, charcoal blocks with a diameter of more than 1 inch, general helmets used for pottery copper smelting, and cinders weighing 21.8 kilograms were discovered, indicating that 3,000 Another method used by ancient Chinese to obtain copper from copper mines many years ago is to burn some bright green malachite CuCO3.Cu(OH)2 and dark blue azurite 2CuCO3.Cu(OH)2 ores in the air. Obtain copper oxide and then reduce it with carbon to obtain metallic copper.
But at that time, since the objects made of copper were too soft, easy to bend, and quickly dulled, people found that tin was mixed into copper to make a copper-tin alloy - bronze, so that its hardness was greatly improved. Improvement (if the hardness value of tin is set to 5, then the hardness of copper is 30, and the hardness of bronze is 100 to 150). Because bronze devices are much easier to smelt and make than copper, and are hard, easy to melt, easy to cast and shape, and stable in the air, they have also been well used in ancient times. In the Bronze Age in Chinese history, bronze was widely used from application. Similarly, in about 280 BC, the bronze sun god that stood in the port of Rhodes on the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea in Europe was 46 meters high, with fingers as tall as an adult. It was also made of bronze.
In modern industry, copper was widely used in the electric power and electronic industries. By the 1960s, copper consumption in these two industries accounted for 28%. By 1997, these two industries were still the main areas of copper consumption, accounting for than 25%. Later, copper was widely used in electrical, light industry, machinery manufacturing, construction industry, transportation and other fields. The copper consumer market has also shifted from European and American countries before 2000 to developing countries such as China, Russia, India and Brazil after 2000. As far as China is concerned, copper is second only to aluminum in the consumption of non-ferrous metal materials.
Development of the domestic copper processing industry: In recent years, as competition in the copper processing industry continues to intensify, mergers, acquisitions, integration and capital operations among large copper processing companies have become increasingly frequent. Excellent domestic copper processing production companies are paying more and more attention to the research of the industry market, especially It is an in-depth study of the corporate development environment and changes in customer demand trends. A large number of excellent domestic copper processing brands have risen rapidly and gradually become leaders in the copper processing industry!
Copper has excellent properties and is easy to recover and recycle. Currently, developed countries already have relatively complete recycled copper recycling systems. For example, recycled copper production in the United States accounts for 60% of the total production, and Germany accounts for 80%. For China, which is short of copper resources, in addition to actively looking for copper resources overseas, it is very meaningful to develop a recycled copper industry.
However, my country's industrialization development is relatively late. Currently, a large number of non-ferrous metal products in the consumer field have not yet entered the scrap cycle. Even if all scrap metal is recycled, it still cannot meet the growing demand for copper. Imported scrap copper and copper concentrate are still the key to the development of my country's refined copper industry. important source of raw materials. my country's renewable resource recycling industry is still in its infancy and has broad prospects for future development.
