Your Comments Count!
The U.S. Forest Service formal comment period on the Rosemont project ends July 14th and you have an important role in the process. We encourage you to get involved by submitting your comment by email at: comments-southwestern-coronado@fs.fed.us or by calling the new phone comment line at (888) 726-7176.

Arizona, the Copper State, produces 65 percent of the United States' copper supply using one quarter of one percent of the state's land. Copper is increasingly important to support production of energy-efficient products, hybrid cars and solar energy systems. These products will continue to sustain high demand for copper, now and over the 20 years of production planned for the mine.

Copper has been called "the cornerstone of today's world." It is essential to the transmission of electricity, so it is essential to the technology that powers our modern way of life. Without copper, you wouldn't be visiting this website, because without copper, computers wouldn't exist.

You're surrounded by objects right now that use copper, though you probably aren't aware of it. Copper shows up in places you may not expect. Take a look at these facts:

• The U.S. nickel coin is actually 75% copper, while the dime, quarter and half-dollar coins are 91.67% copper.
• A 12-piece set of silver-plate flatware (knives, forks, spoons) contains over a pound of copper.
• A typical home refrigerator/freezer contains nearly 5 pounds of copper.
• The average American car contains over 50 pounds of copper.
• The average single-family house contains nearly 450 pounds of copper.
• A Boeing 747 jet airplane contains 9,000 pounds of copper.
• The Statue of Liberty contains nearly 90 tons of copper.
• A Triton-class nuclear submarine uses 100 tons of copper.

Copper is used by itself or in alloys in practically everything you can think of-furniture, art objects, clothes, cosmetics, door handles, water pipes, DVD players, air conditioners, cookware, medical equipment, vacuum cleaners, locomotive engines, paint, iPods; the list is practically endless!

Copper's versatility is due to its malleability-it can be easily shaped, molded and rolled into tubes and sheets and drawn into thin wires. It's an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, resists rust and germs, and can easily be alloyed with other metals. It is also recyclable (according to www.copper.org, copper's recycling rate is higher than that of any other engineering metal), so yesterday's water pipe can be turned into tomorrow's hybrid cars.

Copper truly is essential to our modern way of life, "the cornerstone of today's world."