Native Copper

Native copper is an uncombined form of copper that occurs as a natural mineral. Copper is one of the few metallic elements to occur in native form. Although it most commonly occurs in oxidized states and mixed with other elements. It was an important ore of copper in historic times and used by pre-historic peoples.

This mineral occurs rarely as isometric cubic and octahedral crystals, but more typically as irregular masses and fracture fillings. It has a reddish, orangish, and/or brownish color on fresh surfaces, but typically weathered and coated with a green tarnish of copper carbonate. Its specific gravity is 8.9 and its hardness is 2.5–3.

The name copper comes from the Greek kyprios, “of Cyprus”, the location of copper mines since pre-historic times.