"Martin H. Eastburn" wrote in message om...
Looking in my Bulletin 630 Bureau of Mines - Mineral facts and problems Us. Dept. interior.
Page 263 - Notes that the U.S. was world leader in production of copper from 1883 less 1934 when
economic conditions adversely affected domestic production and Chile ranked first.

Artifacts of hammered copper have been found among Chaldean remains dating back 4500 B.C. and
objects of copper have been taken from graves in the Fayum of Egypt.
Smelting began around 3800 B.C.
Smelting of raw material around 3500 BC [ Iraq ]

Romans mined copper in Britain.

Evidence of the first use of copper in North America was discovered by archaeologists in pits on the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan and on Isle Royale in Lake Superior.
There are thousands of pits on Isle Royale alone.
The pits were excavated in mining and followed deposits of native copper from surface outcrops.
Carbon dating of wood in the pits is 3,000 years old.
These stopped operation around 1000BC and started again around 100-200 AD elsewhere.

In 1709 copper from ore was produced in Simsbury , Conn

Hope that gives a little more info.

Martin - Wonderful book - I bought it many years ago and still like the data.

I knew somebody who was doing trace elemental analysis of Cu
artifacts found in Apalachee mound areas of N. Florida using PIXE
analysis back in 1978. If I remember correctly, the source seemed to
be the Great Lakes region.