Copper in Quebec: Encouraging prospects

The history of copper began before the metal itself was known: the very first jewels were made of malachite or turquoise, green and blue copper-bearing minerals found in the ground above the main copper deposit. From there, humans naturally moved on to mine the native copper farther below, then copper and arsenic sulphide ores to make bronze for the first time: the birth of mining and metallurgy! Copper, in its many forms, has supported humanity in its race to master the world. It was at the heart of the first industrial globalization in Swansea, England. And the price of copper led to the concept of the Kondratieff waves: 50-year economic cycles that accompany major innovations. Recent cycles have encompassed the American boom of the early 20th century, the Japanese boom after the WWII, and today’s Chinese boom.