Д¬ommonly encountered compounds are copper(II) salts, which often impart blue or green colors to such minerals as azurite, malachite, and turquoise, and have been used widely and historically as pigments.Д¬opper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris (or patina). Coper ( Old English) and copper were derived from this, the later spelling first used around 1530. In the Roman era, copper was mined principally on Cyprus, the origin of the name of the metal, from aes СЃyprium (metal of Cyprus), later corrupted to СЃuprum (Latin). 4000 BC and the first metal to be purposely alloyed with another metal, tin, to create bronze, c. Thousands of years later, it was the first metal to be smelted from sulfide ores, circa 5000 BC the first metal to be cast into a shape in a mold, c. This led to very early human use in several regions, from circa 8000 BC. Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement.Д¬opper is one of the few metals that can occur in nature in a directly usable metallic form ( native metals). A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orange color. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from Latin: cuprum) and atomic number 29.

Cuprum afp wikipedia