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Three aspects of a natural product:
Copper as a chemical element |
As a chemical element, copper is one of the fundamental substances of matter.
Like all metals, copper is persistent.
The total quantity of copper on earth remains constant. |
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Metals are chemical elements, in other words, they belong to the fundamental substances of the matter on which our planet and the entire universe are based. One of the most important properties of chemical elements, derived from the Latin word elementum (= fundamental substance, and in this sense an indivisible basic material) is their persistence.
Metals as chemical elements can only be transformed, i.e. converted into a different chemically bonded form (e.g. copper into copper oxide). They cannot be made to disappear like organic molecules, which can be broken down into smaller molecules.
The quantity of all metals on Earth remains constant. The average natural copper concentration in the Earth’s crust lies between 3 and 120 mg/kg. Metals can only be enriched locally and removed to a different place by natural and human displacement processes. Natural transformation processes such as washing out or biological absorption counteract local enrichment. All metals, especially the essential metals, are subject to a natural cycle.
Every year, around four times the quantity of copper moved through human activities is moved by natural life and death cycles, i.e. by falling leaves and expulsion.
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Nutrient cycle of essential trace elements
Plants contain approx.
0,01 - 70 mg copper/kg
or 0,2 – 130 mg zinc/kg |
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Natural copper concentration in the soil:
3 — 120 mg/kg
Natural zinc concentration in the soil:
14 — 290 mg/kg |
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