**2. Copper in past**

Copper has been part of the human civilisations since ancient times up to present days, its first records date back 5,000 and 6,000 years in the past. More specified utilization of copper as metal was achieved in the time of Sumerians and Chaldeans in Mesopotamia, who developed considerable skills in copper handling. Copper fabricated in Mesopotamia was quickly introduced to the the Egyptian Empire where its use flourished thousands of years. These peoples used copper for the fabrication of different jewels, ornaments, but also in the fields of armament and tools. They soon realized that pure copper, because of its softness, is not suitable for shaping tools used in agriculture, cultivation. Later, in the era of the Romans other metals, especially iron and bronze as the main metals in weaponry, gained in importance. In that time copper was first used also for architectural intentions, what can be witnessed on the roof sheathing of the Pantheon.

In Medieval times the use of copper additionally decreased because of the turbulent events in Europe involving the French, Germans, Burgundians, Anglo-Saxons and many more; when bronze had given off its place largely to iron in context of paramount agriculture, but also wars were common in that time. In the context of currency, silver took over the main role, although some copper coins were occasionally hammered in Mercia during the 8th Century.

The copper boom could be linked to immense changes in the time of industrial revolution, when the demand for better raw materials rapidly increased. In the 17th and 18th Centuries massive copper mines and smelting furnaces were exploited and erected to produce several hundreds of tons of pure copper per week.

Nowadays copper presents an important metal, what is undoubtly affirmed by its worldwide annual production of around 5 million tons. Many branches of modern technology use and include copper in their products, especially in the electrical, architectural and chemical industry as well as medicine. The biggest copper sources are located in Chile, USA, Indonesia, Australia and China, where it became the most exported metal.
