Copper has been in use at least 10,000 years, but more than 95% of all copper ever mined and smelted has been extracted since 1900. As with many natural resources, total amount of copper on Earth is vast (around 1014 tons just in the top kilometer of Earth's crust, or about 5 million years worth at the current rate of extraction). However, only a tiny fraction of these reserves is economically viable, given present-day prices and technologies. Various estimates of existing copper reserves available for mining vary from 25 years to 60 years, depending on core assumptions such as the growth rate.[36]
Copper is a finite resource, but, unlike oil, it is not destroyed and therefore can be recycled. Recycling is a major source of copper in the modern world.
As consumption in India and China increases, copper supplies are becoming scarcer.[37] The copper price has quintupled from the 60-year low in 1999, rising from US$0.60 per pound (US$1.32/kg) in June 1999 to US$3.75 per pound (US$8.27/kg) in May 2006, where it dropped to US$2.40 per pound (US$5.29/kg) in February 2007 then rebounded to US$3.50 per pound (US$7.71/kg = £3.89 = €5.00) in April 2007.[38] By early February 2009, however, weakening global demand and a steep fall in commodity prices since the previous year's highs had left copper prices at US$1.51 per pound.[39]
The Intergovernmental Council of Copper Exporting Countries (CIPEC), defunct since 1992, once tried to play a similar role for copper as OPEC does for oil, but never achieved the same influence, not least because the second-largest producer, the United States, was never a member. Formed in 1967, its principal members were Chile, Peru, Zaire, and Zambia.
